Prayer Request

I feel a serious burden right now... I dont know if its my longing or if its the Lord calling me to it, but I really wanted to share something with you all as well as have a written reminder of it in the coming years.
Let me start by explaining something. I have had all of my kids names picked out for years. I knew their names in the order I would use them. So far I have not gotten to use any of them. About a year before we found out about Jonathan God gave me his name. I told my husband if we have a baby boy anytime I think a good name would be Jonathan David. When we found out that we were going to be getting a baby boy I tried to use two or three of the different names I had picked out so long ago, but I kept coming back to Jonathan David. So now, I have my Jonathan David. A few months ago I was really praying hard about having a baby. I so want more kids and I pray that one day I will have more. During my prayer time I caught a name. I shrugged it off until later when I remembered getting Jonathan's name the same way. Then I started to think about it. I went to hubby and asked for his discernment. He was not sure but he has always thought God would give us our own baby.
I dont know when or even how, but one day I will have a baby named Nathaniel Gideon. I believe that with my whole heart. It could be months or years. He could come from my womb or through adoption.
My prayer request is this, please remember us in the coming months/years. I have felt so burdened today to share this with others and to pray about it. I want this baby so badly. Its weird but I feel the same way I felt right before Jonathan was born. I was excited but apprehensive. I did not want to get my hopes up, but I could not keep them down either. I am praying about it constantly today. I finally told God that I thought this was a promise He'd given me and that I would believe on it, but that only time would tell. I dont know why Nathaniel has been on my heart and mind so much today. I dont know if its just the longing I feel or if its truly God reaching down and placing the burden on my heart.
Just so you know, I never even thought of the name Nathaniel Gideon when I was naming all of my imaginary children.
I fail so much as a mom everyday. I cant believe that God would actually entrust another one of his precious little people to me. I dont know why He would. I see the improvements in my life and I know I am growing and changing and one day I may be at a place in my life where my children will rise up and call me blessed, but I am no where near that now. I yell at my children, I discipline in anger, Im too controlling, I dont smile and play with them enough, we dont have a routine, I get too busy for them.... see how much I stink?
This was really hard to share. I told Roy and my mom and one or two other people my thoughts but did not want to advertise the promise because I was not, still am not, 100% sure about it. Does that make sense? Its one of those things you want to hide and then when/if it happens you tell everyone about it. Maybe God has laid it on my heart to share with complete strangers so that His glory will be revealed when it happens? I wish I was stronger in my faith.
Please pray for me when you think about it.

Be Blessed!

Do you hear what I hear?

Ok Im back. I cant download pictures right now because of my dumb camara, so you cant see my kitchen. Probably a good thing since I have only done the minimal in it this past week.
So, lets jump right to the praise and worship/contemporary music post, promised last week.
I have read with interest articles and blogs that argue against this heathen music. Something about the beat and vain repitition. I pondered it in my heart and repeatedly asked the Lord, if any of it was true. Here is what I finally came to for my life.
To hear my children march around the house singing "Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Yes, Lord, Amen!" warms my heart. Some call it vain repitition I call it fun practice for the real thing. There will come a day when the Lord will call them to something and they can just remember the song and sing their answer. By the way here are all the words to that song,

Trading My Sorrows
I'm trading my sorrow
I'm trading my shame
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord
I'm trading my sickness
I'm trading my pain
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord
Chorus:And we say yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord Amen
I'm pressed but not crushed
persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I'm blessed beyond the curse for his promise will endure
And his joy's gonna be my strength
Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning

Repeat

Then I started thinking about the words to some of my favorite CCM songs. They are so Biblical and they remind me of what the Lord has done. They help me to worship. Here are the words to some of my favorites.

By His Wounds - Glory Revealed
Genre/Lang. : Christian
(Feat. Mac Powell, Mark Hall, Steven Curtis Chapman and Brian Littrell)
Isaiah 53:5
He was pierced for our transgressions He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
He was pierced for our transgressions He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace we are saved We are saved
He was pierced for our transgressions And crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace we are saved We are saved
He was pierced for our transgressions He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
And by His wounds, by His wounds..... What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus

Hmmm... straight from the Bible, anyone want to argue?

Praise You in This Storm
words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms
I was sure by now,
that You would have reached down and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away.
Chorus:
And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands for
You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn I will praise You in this storm
I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You and as the thunder rolls I barely hear
You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away
Chorus
I lift my eyes unto the hills where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes unto the hills where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth
Chorus

This song meant a lot to me these past few months as hubby has struggled at work. Looking back I remember a friend of mine from church who said it was helping her deal with struggles she faced with the church split last year.

Blessed Be Your Nameby Matt Redman- - -

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name
Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will sayBlessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be
'Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will sayBlessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be the name of the LordBlessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to sayLord, blessed be Your name

I just love the meaning in this song. Praise the Lord in the good times and the bad!!


I never set out to convince anyone that Im right about this. If this posts helps people to understand that God can use the CCM music as well as Classical music and hymns then YAY!
I love hymns. I dont enjoy classical music. I have tried and tried. I even had to give up a couple of blogs because they had music I could not turn off. Classical music makes my head hurt. Sorry. :) Im so greatful for the music that God give us. I wish I could post all of the songs that I love right now. Im going to try to post some lyrics every week just so those not familiar with these songs can at least read the words. Sometimes Christians get so caught up in what they think is right they forget to ask God what He thinks. Hubby and I searched scriptures to find out if we were polluting our minds with this music. We found nothing.
Im looking forward to reading your thoughts on the subject. Now, I really must go. We are going for a walk and it looks like rain.

Be Blessed!!

Postponed

Unfortunatly blogging will be postponed for a day or two. I very stupidly burned my hand yesterday and typing is not easy. Im ok, just mad at myself. I stuck my hand in the dishwasher after it was done washing to check and see if there was any water left standing. I thought my hand had cleared the metal part on the bottom. NOPE. But I will live. Its a not serious second degree burn. :) Give me a day or two and I will be back.

A Tale of Two Books

I went to bed early last night and did not get a chance to post this. But here we go. These are two of the best books I have read. I have a huge stack of books Im reading through right now and as I come across books that are must haves I will let you know.







I picked up this book through our inter library loan system. It came in about a week after I ordered it and I rushed to the library to pick it up. I'd heard great things about this book as I was searching for some way to raise up my oldest daughter to be more ladylike. The book was actually written towards young ladies, with discussion questions at the end of each chapter. There is much encouragement to read the book with your mother and discuss with her the questions. I did not get to finish the book, but I know I will buy it probably in the next two years. It talked a lot about turning your heart towards home, honoring your father, helping your mother. It was the exact opposite of what the world and even the church is trying hard to teach our daughters. It built on charachter traits that a godly woman should posses. My goal is to train my daughters to embrace Biblical womanhood. This book will help to reinforce that training.




This is the book Im reading right now during my devotional time in the morning. I cant say enough good things about it. Mrs. George gives practical everyday advice on how to train your children up in the Lord. She says to immerse them in Christian influence. Christian books, CDs, videos.... all of it. Here are a couple of applications I have taken from this book.
My kids and I are reading through the gospel of Matthew. We read one story every morning. After reading I tell the children to illustrate the story we just read. When we are done I will put each child's pages together and they will have their very own Jesus book.
We have decided to replace most of our kids books and movies with Christian themed books and movies. My kids can quote The Princess Bride to you left and right. I thought how great if we showed them Bible stories and other moral movies for them to quote and act out. Also, they love to read books over and over so we decided to build our library more in the direction of things we want to make sure our children remember and understand. I spent a good chunk of money at Lifeway last week. We are doing a book basket for Easter this year. I am going to get a big basket and stuff it with books, CDS, videos and audio books for the kids.
I think every Christian mother should have a copy of this book in her library. It has truly changed the way I relate to my kids. I also am so greatful for the ideas she gave me. She is a mother of two grown daughters who have children of their own and she talks a lot about how those daughters are raising their children to love the Lord. Thats enough proof for me. She obviously has a tried and true method. :) Moms, if you only buy one book this year, make it this one!!

March 10, 2000

I was in the midst of planning my wedding. In almost 9 months I was going to be wed to Mr. Wonderful. I thought ok, marriage, a couple of years later kids, a house..... yada, yada, yada. Somwhere in the north part of our nation a beautiful baby girl was being born. My wedding came and went. We waited and waited and waited. No babies came. We decided to go out looking for them since they were not coming to us. In October of 2004 we found a couple of them. One was our blond haired, blue eyed Kelsie. The first picture is her first Easter with us. I guess that would be Easter of 2005. I love how chubby she looks. She has slimmed up so much. She is growing from my baby to my little girl. One day soon she will be my young lady and then my young woman and then she will be the mother of my grandbabies.
I have her husband picked out already. They will be perfect together because while all the other girls at church fawn over him she wont give him the time of day. Perfect. LOL. She likes to be the princess, sometimes to the point daddy and I have to bring her back down to earth. She prays with her eyes closed tight and her face turned up. Her whole face scrunches up as she prays for everyone around her sometimes including the homeless people. She ends with I love everyone so so so so much! She always wants to be with her baby brother. She has the most patience with him. She never gets dirty. She loves being a girl. She wears dresses or skirts most of the time. She can entertain herself. She prefers to be by herself more than my other children. When she does something outright disobedient it always shocks me, because she usually does exactly what we tell her. She cant memorize to save her life. We both get frustrated when she tries to recite poetry or remember addition facts. She can stategize enough to win at Sorry every time. She has hair a color that people would pay money for. I love her more than I thought you could love anyone. She is on the edge of becoming a Christian.
Happy Birthday darling. I love you!! Kelsie Ann!

The Repairman and other boring news

Im trying to get back on track and blog every evening. Tonight is full of nothing, but I have blogs planned for the next few days.
Tuesday I will be recommending some books and sharing some changes taking place in our family.
Wednesday I will take pictures of our kitchen and share some of what I have been doing in there.
Thursday I want to talk about praise and worship music a little bit.
Friday is up in the air a bit. I have three things in my draft folder Im working on and I hope to post one of them. Im leaning more towards whats been working for our family in the last few weeks.
I also want to post some more homeschooling quotes. It was fun reading reactions to some of them.
I have been reading past blog posts and love seeing where I was a few years ago when I started blogging and where I am now.
It definatly makes me want to keep blogging if for no reason other than I get to see myself mature. :)

Today we had the dishwasher repair man out. He was supposed to be here between 8 and 12. We thought we could go to the zoo this afternoon since hubby was off. He got here at 3pm. No zoo today. He was really nice, but he did not have the part to fix it. He had some suggestions that would help us maybe not even need the part. We are going to try those and see. He also said if we wanted to purchase the part and do it ourselves. The part is $13 saving us over $100. That made me laugh. I think we are in the wrong business.
A friend of mine lost her dad to a brain tumor last week. Tonight was the viewing and tomorrow is the funeral. I never knew the man but the funeral home tonight was packed and everyone talked about how he influenced their lives. Apparently he had a saying when people asked how he was, he would answer, "Blessed by the Best!". When he was diagnosed with the tumor he told someone he would win either way. God would heal him and he would win or God would take him home and he would win. What an awesome testimony.
I scheduled portfolio reiviews for my two girls for next month. Their portfolios are a little disorganized right now so hubby and I will work on them throughout the week. One thing I forgot to do was keep a list of what we were reading. Now, I have to go through and figure it out to make the reading list at least presentable. *Sigh*.
Well I need to go to bed.
Night Night
Be Blessed!

How Great Is Our God???

We just recently went to see the How Great Is Our God Tour with Christ Tomlin, Matt Redmon and Louie Giglio. It was awesome, but my favorite part had to be when Lou was talking about the wonder that is the human body. Lou then proceeded to talk about laminin. Laminin, to put it simply, is the glue that holds our cells together. I have searched on this subject and cant quiet understand it myself . Anyways, here is a picture of laminin. The molecule that holds our cells together looks like this:






Awed? Impressed? I sure was.

My "dirty" little secret...

Well in blog land there are many different types of blogs. I tend towards the more conservative Christian homemaker blogs. Now in an effort to keep it real I have a secret to share. Are you ready?



I go to a Purpose Driven Church.

We have spent the last few months watching videos by Andy Stanley and Lou Giglio of North Point Church in Atlanta.

I laugh because I read all the time about how evil my church is.

My new Pastor loves God and his soul purpose in life is to reach out to the unchurched and share Jesus with them. The people I fellowship with in my new church feel the same way.

I have a post in my draft folder called the Truth About The Purpose Driven Church. I am still researching and writing it.
I dont agree with everything. I see too much watering down of some important stuff. But frankly our mission is to go out into the world seeking the lost and share Jesus. Thats what we are doing.
I hope no one stops reading my blog because of my little secret. Funny thing I never really thought about it being a secret until I recently read some serious bashing of Rick Warren and all things Purpose Driven. Im laughing as I post this. Its all said in good humor.
Lets just remember two things:
1. Jesus was a radical in His time, not doing things the "old fashioned" way.
2. Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ is never evil.

WHAT?!?!?!?!

I clicked on a link at Crystal's blog and read the story with my mouth hanging open. I remember plenty of times my parents would pull us out of school to start vacation early. This article made me blood pressure go up. Why you ask? Well because thats what happens when I dont agree with something. Hubby intentionally sends me links to newspaper articles just to hear me screech, "WHAT?!?!" He loves it! LOL So please read this and then hear my screech in the back of your mind!

March Habits

Health:
1. Start a notebook of all Im learning about health and nutrition. Sometimes my mind gets so bogged down with everything.
2. Get some Kefir starter to make my own kefir.
3. Plan smoothies for breakfast and snack at least 3 times a week.
4. Get up to 8 bottles of water a day.
5. Plan to start yeast free diet in April.

Home:
1. Dishes done every night before bed.
2. Sweep and Swiffer the kitchen every night.
3. Keep pantry organized
4. Get all of the boxes out of my kitchen! How did this get to be such a hotspot?
5. Keep computer desk cleaned off.


Family:
1. Look my children in the eye everyday and tell them how much I love them and how blessed I am to have them.
2. Pack a lunch for my hubby.
3. Assign a child to work with me in the kitchen every night.
4. Do scripture memorization with my kids every day.


Be Blessed!!

February's Goals

How did I do?

Health:
1. Start on Yeast Assasin and Tummy Tune up again everyday. Almost everyday. The YA gives me a terrible headache but I think its detoxing. I really want to do this more with a yeast free diet, but so far have not been able to accomplish that.
2. Continue drinking at least three bottles of water everyday. Im almost up to 6. If I do the Water Cure I need to be at about 13 bottles. I am not doing the 1/4t of salt though. I tried that once and thought oh uh-uh! LOL
3. Make my own yogurt and find ways to use it everyday. I made my own yogurt once or twice. It was fun. I mixed it in with potatoes and oatmeal. I used it as topping for anything you would put sour cream on. I also used it in some baking. Honestly, it did not taste half bad without anything.
4. Continue the coconut oil regiment. On that note, I ordered Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sandy Fallon from Amazon the other day. I am hoping to get it this week. I want to read up on the coconut oil some more as I have heard some differing opinions. I will let you know what I think of the book when I read it. I have been mixing this in with oatmeal and using it to cook some other stuff. I cant eat it off the spoon like some people. I have the Eat Fat, Loose Fat book but have not started it yet.
5. Make all of our bread. Done, done, done! Im so excited. I have a goal that if I make all of our bread for the rest of the year I can ask for a Bosch for Christmas.

Home:
1. Dishes done every night before bed. Almost. I still need some work in this area so Im leaving it on the March goals.
2. Sweep and swiffer kitchen floor everyday. Not even a little bit. It stays on for March.
3. Keep kitchen counters clean. Pretty much. There were a few mornings I woke up and had to clean them off. But Im definatly getting better.

Family:
1. Look my children in the eye everyday and tell them how much I love them and what a blessing they are. I thought this would be easy. Im still working on it. Keeping it for March.
2. Pack a lunch for my husband. This one has to stay for March too. I dont think I did it at all.
3. Read aloud to my children everyday. I DID THIS!! We read Charlotte's Web everyday after lunch.
4. Assign one child a day to help me in the kitchen. This needs more work but I did it quiet a bit and found I enjoyed the one on one time.

Tummy Trouble Tuesday...

I wish my Beautiful Womanhood board friend was here to see the wonderful alliteration I just came up with. She just admitted to being an alliteration junkie. LOL

Anyways Im sorry I have been so slack this week. Monday night my baby started throwing up and my other kids showed some tummy distress on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not as bad as it has been in the past which I attribute to the grace of God showing me Kefir and yogurt!
Im just now finishing up some chores around here and hope to be back in blogging mode either later tonight or tomorrow.
I miss blogging. It helps to clear my head.

Be blessed!!

Monday's Mission: Homeschooling and Laundry

Monday: Im catching up on homeschooling. We are about a week behind. What my sweet students did not know until we started this morning is Im putting a time limit on everything. Im tired of fighting with them to get work done so now when the timer goes off we are putting away the work and moving on to the next subject. At the end of our school day they will either have free time because their work was done or they will complete their work. I told them when I started them this morning they had 30 minutes to complete the task they are working on... they have 15 min left. Hubby did a lot of laundry this weekend. The girls put all the kids laundry away and I have to put ours away. Also, I have boxes of clothes in my kitchen I need to go through and either put away or give away. My darling Kelsie has a birthday Saturday and I just sat down to order her butterfly garden. We are going to put it outside of the girls bedroom window and she will have a few minutes every morning to go out and work in her little garden.

Well that was Monday's assignment. How did I do? The timing thing went great. We got so much more work done. Praise the Lord. I got most of the laundry put away, still one or two more stacks left. The butterfly seeds should be here tomorrow. We are taking Kelsie out for her birthday Friday night, but probably wont give her her present until Saturday when the other kids can be there with us. We like to take the birthday kid out to dinner and something fun. One or one with mommy and daddy.

Be Blessed!

March 5 - March 9

I really enjoyed writing out everything I needed to get done a couple of weeks ago and reporting on them everyday. I am going to try to do it weekly. So here we go!

Monday: Im catching up on homeschooling. We are about a week behind. What my sweet students did not know until we started this morning is Im putting a time limit on everything. Im tired of fighting with them to get work done so now when the timer goes off we are putting away the work and moving on to the next subject. At the end of our school day they will either have free time because their work was done or they will complete their work. I told them when I started them this morning they had 30 minutes to complete the task they are working on... they have 15 min left.
Hubby did a lot of laundry this weekend. The girls put all the kids laundry away and I have to put ours away. Also, I have boxes of clothes in my kitchen I need to go through and either put away or give away. My darling Kelsie has a birthday Saturday and I just sat down to order her butterfly garden. We are going to put it outside of the girls bedroom window and she will have a few minutes every morning to go out and work in her little garden.

Tuesday: Mom is taking the girls to get their picture taken tomorrow. We did the boys last month and now we are doing the girls. Next month we will do the family. We also need to go across town to deliver a birthday present to my cousin's little girl since we missed her party this weekend. Im hoping to have time to bake four loaves of bread in all of this and mix up a jar of yogurt. I also need to work to declutter the rest of my kitchen. For some reason it has become the catch all room these last few weeks and that is not acceptable. LOL.

Wednesday: Im going back into my bedroom. I have some more decluttering to finish in there. I also would love to finish rearranging my great room. I need to move bookshelves across the room and declutter the toy box. Thats enough work to last me all day on top of homeschooling. LOL

Thursday: Im going to finish cleaning my bedroom and then move to the girls room. I need to weed through thier clothes again as the closet is getting too full again. We will be blessing some other little girl greatly in the next few weeks I imagine.

Friday: I have to fix up the boys room. I want to move Jonathan in there completly meaning clothes and all. Im hoping hubby will have some time this weekend to put together the twin bed in there so Adrian can move into the big bed. Right now he is in a toddler bed, but I told him when he was potty trained he could move to the big boy big. He is pretty much trained only having accidents at night. I finally gave in and put him in pullups at night for my saniy. LOL. On this day I will also clean out our dining room. We have a busy weekend planned but Im hoping we can finish laying the floor in the dining room and get up our storage shelf/cabinet thing which will house some extra serving dishes and my sewing machine and current projects. Im excited about this! Finally a home for the wandering sewing machine.


This weekend we will have a welcoming bbq for our new pastor and his wife on Saturday. We will then have a special guest at our church on Sunday morning and lunch afterwards with her. The special guest is a dear women who went to our old church with us and moved away about a year or two ago. She is an adoptive mom of two beautiful baby girls. Well I guess they are not so much babies anymore since the youngest is 3 now. She also has an older son from a first marriage in which she was widowed in and a son who is probably 10 now with her current husband. Her older son's father was from Puerto Rico, the younger son is blond and fair, the older daughter is Native American, and the younger daughter is a mixture of Cuacasion and African American. She calls her family the Village People. They are all beautiful children. And she and her husband are wonderful Christians. Im so excited she will be joining us Sunday morning as she encouraged us a lot through the adoption process.

I have a few more posts to put up today and throughout the week as Im finishing up stuff in the drafts folder.

Be Blessed!

The Best News EVER!!!

Ice Cream


I am dancing in the streets and singing praise to the Lord for this one. He knows what I need and he made it something good. LOL!