Not flowing right...

I had plans to put up more on God has called us.. but, as I type its not flowing right. I am going off to bed and will pray about how to relate my heart to you all tomorrow.
Its such a huge step for my family.
Good night and be blessed!

God has called us...

Last October the good Lord revealed to my husband and I a new calling. I was praying for direction for our family. I was praying for direction for my husband. I was praying for direction for myself. We'd just adopted the children and started homeschooling. We had visions of more children. We had visions of our children growing up strong and biblically ready to serve God. In all of this praying God revealed a place for this city family in a rural setting. A place where we could learn to live off of the land. A place where life through full of daily work was ended with satisfaction. A life of simplicity and hard work.
I know there is a movement among a lot of conservative Christians right now to "get out of dodge" so to speak. We are pulling our children out of public school in alarming rates. We are learning to treat ourselves instead of relying on modern drugs and monthly doctor's visits. We are searching the scriptures for concrete foundations of life. There is controversy among Christians on a lot of this. Christians calling Christians extreme and legalistic.
Legalism as a term has really started to bother me lately. Any time someone does not agree with how you read the scriptures you are considered legalistic. I am a black and white person. I read the Bible as literally as possible. I know Jesus. I know grace and mercy. I know that we are not "under" old testament law. I don't think that we have "liberty" to live however we want as long as no one gets hurt. I believe Christians, sons and daughters of the KING, should live their lives differently. At a different standard even then those who are unbelievers. If I live just like the lost person next door with maybe fewer bad words what will he see in my life worth surrendering his life to Christ for?
I have heard Christian parents admonish other Christian parents for homeschooling. Apparently we should send our children to public school to be salt and light... I don't buy that. My kids can be salt and light to their homeschcool group, at the park, at church, anywhere they are and still be under my watchful eye and prayerful heart. Plus, my kids are not ready to stand firm in their beliefs. They are still trying to understand their beliefs. They know the love Jesus and He loves them. They don't know what it means to not believe in God at all. They don't know what it means when Billy has two mommies. They don't need to know it. We tell our children God wants boys to marry girls and have lots of babies. God wants girls to marry boys and have lots of babies. That's what they understand. Our job is to tell them the truth. Our job is to write God's word on their hearts. When they are older and someone has two daddies they can just know that its not right. They can defend their stance when called to question. They are not ready for that now. I will not send them out to be soldiers on a battlefield I am still trying to understand at 28. I will not send them ill prepared to be taken in by a devil who is charming, conniving, manipulative, and so deceitful.
I will write more on this hopefully later today. I have a huge burden on my heart and I just want to share it. Eventually this post will turn into our what our vision is. A vision God gave both of us.. gradually and then confirmed it and is still confirming.

Be Blessed!

Health Challenge

I am participating in a challenge at Lori's blog. She came up with the idea to challenge ourselves to change 6 things about our health habits for the next 6 weeks.
Here are my six:

1. Take my medicine everyday. I am so bad about this. For right now I am on medication to regulate my blood sugar. Even though I am working to get off of it, I need to be diligent about taking it. I also need to take my supplements daily.

2. Read with my babies everyday. This is for my calming, emotional health. I always feel so guilty that we don't read together enough.

3. Raw foods (fruits and veggies with yogurt) at lunch time. I will post more on the why of this later.

4. Soup or salad with dinner. Getting in more of those raw veggies (salad) or mixture of veggies (soup). I am hoping to make the soup with homemade stock and the salad's homemade dressing.
5. Get back to making our bread 2-3x a week.

6. In bed by 11pm.

These are the things I hope to accomplish in the coming weeks.
I finished the introduction and mastering the basics section of Nourishing Traditions and I am preparing to start implementing. We wont do everything, but there is enough we can change to make a difference. Babysteps!!


Be Blessed!

New Strategy

As I have mentioned before my oldest is having a hard time keeping up with her work. It has been a constant struggle the past few weeks. Her attitude has improved 100 percent though and for that we are grateful.
Karly is about two weeks behind right now. I will use this week to catch her up one week and then the dates will all change and she will be caught up. With this she will be ungrounded..or off of grounding..not sure. :) She will be allowed to resume dance lessons and start piano.
There will be an understanding that she will complete all of her work everyday in a timely manner. I am working out a way that she can proceed without waiting for me. With four other children there have been times she has had to stop and wait for me on occasion. I will blog about this new idea later. She will be expected to keep up with her work though. I don't think it is too much. I mentioned in an earlier post how much work she has. Working it out on paper she should complete in two hours. I have three alloted.
I will let you know in a few weeks how it all worked out!

Be Blessed!

Slacker...

I have not read my Bible all week. There I said it. I have been pretty much grumbling, complaining and unhappy all week. Hmm...see the connection?

Slacker...

I have not read my Bible all week. There I said it. I have been pretty much grumbling, complaining and unhappy all week. Hmm...see the connection?
Just thought I would point out how my behavior is directly related to the amount of time I spend in God's word every day.

Give us this day..

Once again searching for just the right title and it would not come to me. No wonder I never win any of the Pioneer Woman's contests.
I was talking with hubby about ways I have strayed these past few months from our healthy living goals. It also brought up ways we have continued making wise choices in that area. So here is a list of what we kept doing through the slump.
Brown Rice
Whole Wheat/Grain bread or no bread at all
Real butter
Extra Virgin olive oil (though the quality left a lot to be desired)
Oatmeal instead of cereal
Whole grain pancakes (only on Saturdays!)
Publix Organic milk (though I cant wait to get back to Raw milk)
Limited snacks of processed junk (though I am working my way back to none)
No Hormones/No Antibiotics Omega 3 eggs (not organic or free range, but its what we can afford right now)
Still avoided cooking with processed foods.
Lots of fruits and veggies

Now, what bad habits did we go back to?
Sodas, sodas, sodas! We went from having an occasional soda on a night out to buying them everytime we stopped at the store. We had bottled water in the house, but really who wants to drink water when you have yummy soda? Now that we dont have soda in the house as much the water is going back to being pretty yummy!
Eating out a lot. When I failed to plan healthy, delicious meals it was easy to justify stopping to grab something while we were out. Our budget felt this as well.
Some processed snack food that would be gone within a couple of days.
I put away my NT cookbook and stopped learning from welltellme. I thought maybe all of that stuff was not really necessary. While for some it might not be, but God has given me a vision for my family in the coming years.

I'm so glad that God has restored my vision of a more healthy lifestyle for our family. He has called us to a grand undertaking in the coming years and we have to be prepared. Everyday something has happened in our lives to confirm it just a little more. I will expound on some of those things in another blog post.
As for now I am studying my NT book, prayerfully. I want the Lord's leading on the changes in our lives. He wants us to change of that I have no doubt.

Be Blessed!

Sunday...

Sunday will be a big day for my family.

I am doing the storyteller part of our kid's program. We have a program called Kid City that we do before the worship service. It's aimed at families. Basically we take one virtue a month and there are songs, skits, and stories for the whole month. This month is respect. We are working around umbrellas, because parents and others in authority over you are placed there by God, like an umbrella, for your protection. I like that analogy. Of course my umbrella is really messed up and has holes in it. I get to talk about David and Saul. Basically, as you all know, Saul had some issues with David. One minute he liked him the next he wanted to kill him. But while David protected himself, he still respected Saul. He had a few opportunities to kill Saul (one in a cave where David cut off a piece of Saul's robe...thats my story) but instead waited until Saul left and then went out, fell to the ground, and begged Saul to reconsider killing him. Saul repented and agreed that David should not be killed. The moral of our story is we have to respect people in authority over us even if we don't agree with them. Thats my short version of the story. You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 18-24. I think this is a great lesson. I just hope I don't forget my lines. LOL
The second thing is my husband is going to be ordained as an Elder in our church. He and two other men are the first ordained Elders for our church so its monumental on many levels. I am so impressed with how much he has grown just in the past year. He was so strong and godly just last year when he called our former pastor to repentance, I can't believe he is now an Elder. He is perfect for the job though. Humble and willing to serve God wherever he can. He also is an awesome leader of his home. Our pastor did tell the men that they had to be in God's word daily to be an elder. He called them everyday for two weeks straight at an appointed time to see what they had read that day. Its done wonders for my guy and I'm so happy and thankful. My man gets a little better everyday and I love him a little more everyday. :)
I'm really looking forward to Sunday.

Be Blessed!

Where is the line?

I'm having a serious crisis of belief. I want homeschooling to be a good experience for my kids. I want us to have fun learning new things together. I want them to be able to explore their own interests. I want to make learning come alive for them. On the other hand I want my children to learn self control and self discipline. I want them to understand that sometimes we have to do the hard things before the fun things.
My oldest tends to make everything take longer and look harder. I don't really understand this, but I do know its hindering her experience. She will take all day to complete her work and then have at least one hour of corrections. Here is a sample of what we do:



Math: Lesson, timed fact sheet, worksheet (usually only one side)
Grammer: Lesson, about 10-20 questions to cover material learned and review
Spelling: Pretest, discuss and copy rule, first worksheet. The next day we finish the worksheet and take the test.
Handwriting: Day one: book worksheet, Day two practice sheet and final copy

I don't think this should take all day long. I teach the math and grammer lesson and go over the spelling lesson and then she takes off on her own. We sometimes do Latin together in the morning. I am trying to establish a Bible lesson a little better as well.
I guess what I really need to do is get to a place where I can show her what she is missing. Make sure there is "free" time in the afternoon where the kids who finish their work can explore their own interests.
Right now we have taken away her extra curricular activities like dance and piano. We want her to understand that sometimes we have to do stuff we dont like to do in order to do things we want to do.
We need to work more on "life" skills as well. I'm going to order a couple of home economics books. Maybe I will just start these with the younger girls while she does school work.
It's just hard to know what to do. Some would say I need to meet her where she is at, but its not that she cant do the work she has flat told me she just does not want to. Some would say I am traumatizing her by not letting her do the extra stuff. My instincts tell me that this is a battle with my strong willed child.
I could tell you horror stories of the attitude problems we have had lately. She is slowly coming out of those only by prayer and sheer force of will on our part. I think school is just one more battle we have to fight with (and for) her.
I want her educational experience to be fun and rewarding and I think one day it will be. She has to be willing to work with us though. We have to prepare her to be able to function in the world one day. We have to prepare her to be able to hear the call of God and be obedient to Him. (Another blog post on what we are all learning in that area soon.)
Well those are just some thoughts roaming around in my head as I look at my oldest still stubbornly sitting at the table doing only the minimum. Dinner will be ready soon, then it's Bible and bed and start the next day. I wonder how many days she will have to sit at the table all day long.

Be Blessed!

Monday...

I could not come up with a clever title.
We got a late start on today. The children are just now finishing up their morning glass of kefir. I really need to get serious about finding some grains. Right now I use the Lifeway brand from Publix, but we go through about two bottles of that in two to three days. They also had oatmeal for breakfast. One of the changes I hope to make in the coming weeks is to begin soaking our oatmeal overnight. I'm still reading up on the whys of it and I will blog about it the more I understand it.
I am also going to talk to hubby about taking the kids off of tap water. It will mean our grocery bill goes up slightly because all we drink is water so that would mean at least one maybe two more cases of bottled water every two weeks. Once again still working through most of the whys of this change and will blog about it when I understand it better.
For lunch today we will have plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon. I will slice some apples up as well. The kids love that.
For dinner we are having the Perfect Pot Roast, with steamed broccoli and salad. I have been using the book Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely for the past month and we have loved it. She has a low carb addition I am thinking about exploring.
We have some extra homeschooling to get done today so I'm going to skip Latin again this week. I skipped it last week also. Its ok, we just take Latin at our own pace. The kids enjoy it and I try not to make it a tedious, have to do thing.
I want to get into the girls' closet and start decluttering and organizing. Today is wash day for all of our bedding. I start with the girls' quilts because they have to hang dry. I do my comforter second because it takes two turns in the dryer. Then I do the boys' comforters and lastly the sheets and pillowcases. It takes all day. LOL. I have to scrub the floor around our toilet. We have a leak or something so it is going to take some extra cleaning. I also need to make some bread today.
I am going to stick to my way of making bread for the time being. I am reading up on soaking grains and sour dough and other stuff in NT, but its not a change I'm going to make right now.
Well, I better get going. Its time to start our morning chores...at 12pm. Yes, we are way off this morning. LOL.

Be Blessed!

Nourishing Traditions and My Health

I'm not at church right now. My family is, but I'm at home. I could tell you why.... but that might be way too much information. I'm always trying to be transparent on this blog, but trust me, transparency should have limits. Let's just say my stomach is really hurting and leave it at that. Oh and I can assure everyone that I am not pregnant this month! LOL
I figured while the house was quiet I would focus on reading through the Nourishing Traditions thread on the welltellme site. I am very intrigued with the experiences of cooking NT. They range from "Yuck" to "Yum". But most people have said that even if they never made another recipe from NT they would never part with the book, because of all the other benefits and information. I will admit my eyes glaze over when I'm reading the information part of the book. I have to take that in small doses. But I am noticing that it is easier to understand and comprehend as I read a little bit at a time. I have been reading through some of the recipes. I'm still debating on where to start in the implementation process. I have not been able to buy raw milk for a few months now because it's $5 for a half gallon and money has been tight. I miss it though. We are finally getting back on budget and I'm looking forward to picking up my milk again next month. I think I will spend the rest of this month coming up with a plan for next month. I will note some of the things I would like to start out with in the book and work from there. Its definatly not a book you can just open and start making stuff. It takes planning. I'm also going to use the rest of this month to get my kitchen ready to roll. I have some cleaning and organizing and decluttering to do in there. I can't function in a cluttered kitchen. Thats why we have not had any bread for about 2 months now. My kitchen is out of control. I have some ideas for ways to improve it, but thats another blog post.
My blood sugar has been pretty good the past few weeks. Though I have been taking the Glucophage. I really need to focus on diet, excercise and natural supplements to get off of this drug. My Dr. wants to put me on another drug in addition to the Glucophage, but I am holding off on that for the time being. I have to go get some lab work done and I did not see my Dr. last month. I did not make the appt on the way out of the office and then never thought about it again until the end of the month. I have to call and set up an appt for this month...soon I guess. I decided to drop my diabetes class I was supposed to go to every month. For starters it was going to cost me $150.00 for every class and then the first meeting the lady was very skeptical of my goal to get off of the medicine with diet, excercise and natural supplements. She actually laughed when I told her I use Stevia and not Splenda and that I take Cinnamon to help regulate my blood sugar. She said that she could not approve of either of those things. I figured I was not going to waste $150 every month for 6 months to be lied to, did not seem worth it.
The good news is, they think I am still in the early stages, so I do not have a lot of damage. My goal is to keep it that way.
Well, I have written a lot and now I'm going to lie down. I think we are going to take a hike this afternoon at one of the state parks if my stomach calms down, which it will in the afternoon. It always does. The excercise and fresh air will be good as well. I want to rest for awhile. I'm going to post more on changes in our diet in the next few days.

Be Blessed!

Around the House

I have been busy with fall cleaning. My bedroom is done and I'm working on the bathroom. That is a disaster. I organized the boys' closet. I made a list of how many clothes we need. Well, I allowed for extras so its more than they need but not so many the closet is over flowing. I took pictures. I will post them with a list as soon as I can get my camera to download. I plan to get to the girls' closet this weekend.
We also have a new chore list set up for the kids. I think my Adrian needs more work though. He is a bit lazy and I think more work is just the thing. LOL.
I have been busy transferring my links from IE to Mozilla. DH says they are supposed to transfer automatically. I think he is tricking me. :)
I have been spending a lot of time browsing through my Nourishing Traditions book and also reading through the Well Tell Me boards. We have been doing well with the changes we have already made that I'm ready to make some more. I have jumped back on the diet soda wagon, so I really need to get off of that again. All that fake sugar is sure to kill me. :)
I miss blogging so I want to get back in the groove this week. Its just been the least on my list lately.
Ok thats all for now. Off to make some pancakes with real maple syrup. YumO.

Be Blessed.

Bye Bye IE and other news

I am through with Internet Explorer. I faithfully held out til the end. No more. I just discovered last Friday that all the blogs I thought were not updating.... well it was just IE's cruel trick. Yes, the blogs were updating, but IE was hiding it or something. LOL. So now I am with Firefox as my husband has begged me to be forever.
I don't know if I mentioned this, but my DH's dad was hit by a car about two weeks ago. The EMT did not think my 75 year old father in law who fell and hurt his leg and hit his head should go to the hospital. My FIL said, "OK." Three days later he was in the ER finally being diagnosed with two fractures that required surgery and pins. He is in rehab now. Dh went down last weekend by himself to check on his mom and visit his dad. This weekend I and the two older girls went with him. It was a last minute decision. Thats why I did not update Friday evening. Also, I was busy transferring my blog roll to Firefox.
Anyways, that was my weekend. I hope to have some time this afternoon for an Inspirational blog post and maybe another post.

Be Blessed!

Im alive!

Hi all, Im here. I have a ton of stuff I want to write about, but not a lot of time right now. I had to chuckle as I checked in with some other blogs this morning and noticed we all seem to be on a slight hiatus. For us its been one family issue after another, school, and church activities. I have more peace in my life right now, praise the Lord. I really felt for awhile I was spiraling out of control, but God is working it out.
Im going to try to post an inspirational blogs post later on today.

Be blessed!