Question

How do you vote?

I always vote the way my husband votes. I do a lot of the research behind the candidates and present it to Dh. He then decides how we will vote. He is the head of our family. Our spiritual leader. We vote as a family. We discuss candidates and issues with our kids. I am teaching my sons and daughters that as a family unit we should one day vote together. When they get married of course they should vote with their husband and my sons should encourage their wives to vote with them. Dh and I have decided that's a personal choice for them, but its what we are teaching and encouraging now.
Personally, I could care less that women have the right to vote. I exercise the right as helpmeet to my husband. When I vote with him it furthers his vision for our family. I'll probably get rotten tomatoed over that thought, but its the truth.
But, what if you don't agree with his pick? So. Showing my husband respect as the leader of our home is far more important in eternity than who runs the nation, state, city... today.
I figure if I am to be subject to him in everything I might as well be subject in who I vote for by voting with him. (Eph. 5:24) I respect him and trust him enough to make spiritual decisions for our family why should I not respect him enough to make political decisions as well? Which is more important in the long run?
This is something I will be putting into practice BIG TIME with this election. I have made it clear how I feel about the VP pick and I have always thought McCain was too liberal for my conservative blood. But my husband will vote that way. I'm sure. With a smile and a prayer I will follow. And in 100 years it won't matter that I voted for people I did not believe in. It will matter that I voted with someone I do believe in.

So, what do you think?

Great quote for today!

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." -- John Quincy Adams

Forgive me...

I am not happy.
Shes a wife and a mother of children not yet grown.
I don't think she belongs in the office of VP.

McCain/Palin ticket


Oh yeah, and I take these verses seriously. Not culturally. Not as an analogy. Seriously. Literally.

1 Timothy 2:9-15, "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety."



Doesn't sound much like a vice presidential candidate to me.

Oh how I pray that we might not have to vote Republican right now. I hope Dh lets us vote somewhere else.

Im sure she's a great person. She chose not to abort her Down Syndrome baby. I completely admire that. It's not her I have a problem with. I don't think women belong in leadership positions over men. I was mad when Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the house. I was mad when Hilary threw her hat in the ring for President. It's hard enough raising my girls to be women in this world where anything goes. Where men are snarled at and mocked everywhere you turn. Where women are expected to be the smart strong one. Marriages are a partnership with no leader. "I can do anything you can do better!" a girl sings to a boy. The whole biblical model of men and women is being destroyed in front of my girls. Men aren't better than women and women aren't better then men. BUT God is His infinite wisdom gave us a model to follow. Priorities to cling to. Now we mock them. I just don't understand.

Cleaning up..

I am going to be doing some tidying up around here. Please let me know if you would like to be added to my blogroll. I have some sitting in a folder waiting to be added. There are also a couple of links that people have either stopped blogging or have not blogged in a good long while that I will probably remove.

Be Blessed!

Psalms

I have been spending time the past couple of months in Psalms. I have read through this book many times, but this has been one of those times when its like the words jump off the page. I can't believe how awed I am by the words in the book of Psalms. Especially as I look at the verses through the eyes of my family life.

As I wrote about before I am going to be doing something around my house called Faith and Family walls. Since I last posted that I have been really turning my eye to the scriptures every morning praying for God to send me the ones for the walls. My cup overfloweth just from Psalms.
As I read through Psalms 119 I copied and copied until I finally made a note to just frame the whole chapter for one of the walls. *Smile*. The whole chapter just really spoke to me.
Here are just the first 24 verses. The whole chapter is like this. What a great path for our lives!

Psalms 119:1-24, "ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies. Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors."

When my kids ask me how many times I have read the whole Bible I tell them truthfully quiet a few times. Not bragging but because I want them to know that no matter how many times you read it does not get boring. It only gets better. I don't know of any other book I could read as much as I have read the Bible and still long to read it again and again!

I love sharing with my babies new insights that I have gleaned from God's word. My oldest has gotten to where she enjoys sharing with me what she has read in her Bible.

What are you reading in the Word?

Be Blessed!

The Simple Life: Bread

I have been reading lately about living a simpler life. I am a very modern, materialistic girl. I am striving towards a more simple life style. It relaxes me just reading about these people who have decided that they just don't need "it". Whatever "it" may be. I know its not an easy lifestyle. And I know this city girl has a loooooooooooooong way to go. But Im willing to take baby steps. One of the first steps I took was bread. One common thing among most simplicity seekers was making your own bread. I have been doing just that for awhile. I thought about it awhile back. When I mention that I bake my own bread by hand I am usually met with shock and awe. Followed by murmurs of praise to my greatness. This always makes me laugh. Making bread costs me about 15-20m of labor. If that. Here is my recipe and step by step instructions. I try to bake it on Mondays and Thursdays if needed. It really is quiet simple. I will tell any beginners that my first few loaves were not that great. My suggestion is to keep trying. Adjust it until you get it to your liking. We were not real big wheat bread eaters around here. I started by using some white flour with the wheat and weaned us off of that. Now its all whole wheat. I have been using a little bit of whole wheat pastry flour about a cup to the mix and kneading it on the pastry flour. This has given us a smoother and lighter texture. Almost sandwich bread quality. :)
The above is my dream. Its a Wonder Mill Grain Mill. Dh doesn't think we need one right now so I just enjoy it vicariously through online friends. :)
Hopefully, this will be what I get for Christmas. The Kitchen aid grain mill attachment. Its a great start.. I think.
And worse case scenario I buy this hand mill. I can't imagine being able to get enough flour for bread from this bad boy without killing myself, but I'm sure after awhile I would be better at it. And boy what muscles I would have!!

I would love to have fresh ground grains to work with. Until then though I am happy to do with what I have!

All's Well

We weathered Lazy, Crazy Fay with no big problems. We lost our power for about 15-30m 3 times. Some were without power for DAYS! Fay started showing up around Wednesday and did not leave until Saturday night. Talk about a rude guest. She was a terrible tourist here in the sunshine state. She flooded a lot of areas she hit because she was so lazy and would just pour out buckets of rain for HOURS!
I so enjoyed watching the news casts for this storm. The meterologist were in a tizzy. Yes ma'am an old fashioned tizzy with their facts and opinions and whatever else they had to offer. They had wonderful footage of stupid human tricks. People walking on the sea wall with the waves crashing over the sea wall. Grown men wading into nasty water taped off by the fire department for their protection, because lets face it that water is full of nasty! Cars going around barricades and getting flooded. Adults deciding that today would be a great day to go into the ocean. Never mind that the storm is now officially hitting the area. "Dude, look at those waves!" One lady lost her life thinking that her once in a lifetime experience to be a part of a tropical storm was today! Many others could have lost theirs trying to save her.
Then, oh joy!, the tornadoes! All of sudden the meterologists all clapped their hands with horrified glee. Folks, there are tornadoes and tornadic activity. Run don't walk to your interior room with no windows. If you hear a roaring sound please don't step outside to see if you can see that thar twister. Stupid humans. :)
All in all the storm was a fun one for us. Dh got three days off from work and the kids enjoyed sitting in front of our big window and watching the storm. By Sunday I was a bit stir crazy though. When church got cancelled because of a power outage at the school we meet at I was sad. So we went to lunch at Taco Bell, fed the whole family for $20, dropped some books off at the library, met grandma at the shoe store so she could buy ballet shoes for the girls, went to a beach nearby with a playground, went to Dairy Queen, came home and crashed! Too fun!

I would like to say that for those who faced the devestation of Fay, I am praying for you. I was not trying to make light of the burden you have been called to bear. I learned for me personally, the best way to make it through the hard times was to laugh. So I do. I laugh.

Be Blessed!

Storm and Dance

As I type this the wind has started picking up. Even though we don't expect the storm until tomorrow I can already see glimpses as we get some of the outer bands. My warrior is leaving work in a few minutes and I am finishing up laundry and some basic cleaning I might not get to do if we do, in fact, loose power. The worst prediction I have seen has us loosing power for 9 days. I don't really see that happening, but you never know. I will be making some bread and tortillas this afternoon. We have peanut butter and tuna fish. I don't want to stock up on a lot of canned stuff because if we don't loose power we will NEVER eat it. I just can't stomach it anymore. The smell makes me gag! LOL We always have lots of water so that's not a concern here. I did make some beans and rice and put them in the freezer. It won't be yummy but it will be nourishing. If we don't use them I can always throw it into a soup where we won't mind the mushiness. I have found you can safely eat out of your freezer for a few days if the stuff is already cooked. Some might not want to do that, but we do and have never had a problem.
One great thing about living in a newer neighborhood is our power lines are buried. It takes a lot for us to loose power in a storm.
We are not panicking though.. just preparing a little.


In other news... I have come up with a great P.E. program. Feel free to steal it!
We put on the radio some Toby Mac, Kirk Franklin, Newsboys and Mary Mary and dance around for about 30m. So. Much. Fun. :)

Be Blessed my friends!

I just wanted to share...

On a message board I am on we recently started talking about when we came to be believers. I thought about what to write for a long time. This is what I wrote.

I was 6 years old, or so I'm told. I remember praying the prayer and talking to my grandaddy, my daddy and the preacher. I remember being baptized. I don't remember some earth shattering revelation falling on me! For a long time I thought because I'd never had that "feeling" I must not be saved. It started a few months before I got married. I had a horrible dream. I knew Jesus was coming back that day and we had to be at a certain spot singing hymns when He came back. (Its ok you can laugh.. I do now!)I could not find the spot. I looked and looked getting more afraid. I woke up, sure I was having a heart attack. I read through the whole NT that night. I contemplated calling my preacher at 2am. I was THAT scared. I prayed the "sinner's prayer" about 50 times. I quoted verses over and over out loud. Later, my husband to be informed me I had been under spiritual attack. It took me almost two years to come out of that season of doubt. It was horrible. But now, I know why I went through it. It really strengthened my faith. It drew me more into God's word as I searched for the assurance I so desperately needed. I also have a testimony for others who were saved as children and enter into doubt. I was ministering to a 76 year old woman the other day. When I said, the biggest reason for my doubt was not fully understanding what I was saved from, she broke down in tears. I can look back on my life and see God working through all the years. I did make a commitment to Jesus at 6. I believe with all my heart that's when I became a part of God's family. I served Him through my growing up years as best I could. I missed a lot of discipleship. Oh, I knew my Bible. I won award after award for knowing the Bible. LOL. BUT no one taught me how to apply it. It was not until I endured those two years that I learned how the Bible applied to me. Now God is so very real to me. I am so thankful.

It is all so very true. That dark time in my life was life changing for me.

I have learned to claim reassurance every day. Quoting verses that assure me that I am saved. I make it a point to do a fruit check every now and then. I want to see some visible signs of my faith in my life. I do. Oh, I so very much do! :)

I put this out there in hopes of ministering to someone else and also to remind myself that God is good!

GREAT NEWS!

Are you sad that this is the best happy face pic I could find??? I am.. LOL

Anyways, great news. Tuesday morning my BFF, Mel, called to tell me she had my Bible. Our preacher's wife found it and gave it to her Monday night. We have Bible study at Melodie's house on Tuesday so I as able to get it then. Isn't that wonderful?

By the way, my heart broke for all the stories of treasured Bibles lost forever. My parents house burned down a few months after we got married. I was able to get into my old room and get my Bible I'd had from my youth. It was my favorite Bible and I used it for the next 7 years. I just got this new one last year. I still have the Bible from my parent's house. Its lovingly sitting by my bed. I still use it occasionally. :)

Yes, you can!

Can I take a moment, please? Something I have been pondering over and over in my mind lately and I just have to share it! Please, don't tell me you "can't" homeschool. I really don't want to hear it. If you don't want to, that's fine. I won't judge you. There are very few reasons someone can't homeschool. The major one I can think of is if you husband does not want you to. That's a completely legitimate "can't"in my book. But please don't forget... prayer changes things!

My first reason for not wanting to hear you can't homeschool? Well, it has to do with a Bible verse that popped into my head one day when I was listening to a mother tell me she just could not homeschool her child. It would be too hard.
Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

So, I'm not going to buy that excuse anymore. Once again, if you don't want to homeschool, its ok. I will not judge you or push you or demean you. Just don't lie to me about it. You don't even have to give me a reason why you don't want to homeschool. We are still friends. Really.

I'm not smart enough. Can you read? I failed math every year of highschool! Every year. Thank God for books that have scripted lessons. That's what I use for math for my kids. It tells me exactly what to say and when. It even tells me what to write. Same with our grammar book.
I'm not qualified. Hmm.. who qualified you to be a parent in the first place? Did you go to college for that? Who taught your baby to walk, talk, eat, potty, share....??? That makes you a teacher. I read on a church sign the other day... Every home is a classroom, what are you teaching at yours? That's so true. When your kids come home from school every day do they just stop learning. Who is teaching them right from wrong? To clean up after themselves? To love Jesus? Sounds like you might be qualified enough to teach them something as simple as reading, writing , and arithmetic.
Because I am outspoken and passionate about homeschooling people come to me a lot to ask about it. I try not to push anyone into it. It has to be your decision. Not mine!
It does take a certain level of commitment. I have to commit to my children to teach them and train them everyday. Some days are easier than others. But in reality homeschooling is not hard, it just takes more of a commitment. We read, we write, we play, we discipline, we learn... how is that different than any other home?

I did not want to offend anyone with this post. I know I have a couple of people who read my blog who do not homeschool. I just want to put it out there that homeschooling is an option.
Personally, I think its the best option. Especially for Christian families. But... thats my OPINION! :)

Be Blessed!

Blog worth mentioning..and a contest..

So, I don't know if you have ventured over to my new friend's blog. Her name is Laura Ingalls Gunn. YES! I wandered over there one day upon finding out she was related to THAT Laura Ingalls. I stayed there because her sight is so beautiful. She is an interior designer and I am always getting great ideas over there.
She is hosting a fun summer giveaway. Run over right now to enter the giveaway. Stay to enjoy her other posts!! :)
By the way, I can call her friend because she has commented on my blog a few times. That makes us friends! :)

Two Exciting Things in Blogland

First, Mrs. Connie at Connie's Thoughts from the Heart presented me with an award. ME??? I am so blessed. She is such a great encouragement to me. She always has the best stuff on her blog. If you have never been there please go check it out.

She presented me the Brilliant Weblog award. She looked up the word brilliant and found out that it meant: 1. very bright; 2. striking, distinguished. Not words I would have associated with my blog, but I'm glad she could. :) This is my web journal. This is where I chronicle my day to day life in hopes that someone out there can smile and say, "Hey, I'm not so different after all!" I love blogging. I don't expect many people to care about what I have to say, but I do enjoy saying it. :)

Thank you Mrs. Connie, this is a special award, mostly because someone I admire and respect so much bestowed it upon me!

Now according to the rules I have to:

1) Put the logo on your blog;

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on yours

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

Easier said than done. As I look through the blogs to the right I can find something wonderful about all of them. But... here goes... just 7.....hmm...

The first goes to my lovely friend, Lori, at Beyond the Garden. She makes me so happy when I read her blog. She definitely shines!

The second goes to, Michele, at Cherish the Home. I always, always learn something at her blog. She shines God's light through her writings.

Thirdly, I believe will go to, Rachelle, at Mama's Little Bears. She encourages me daily with her ideas for raising godly children. She is a great mama shining into her little one's lives.

The fourth award goes to, an old friend, Lori, at Michigan Momma. I have actually cyber-known Lori for awhile and sometimes I am convinced we were separated at birth. She and I have so many of the same ideas about raising children. She shines through her love of her children and her husband!

For the fifth award, I think, sweet, sweet Bren, at Pieces of Me. She has really shown me how to LOVE my children this year. I have laughed and cried over at her blog these past few months. I am so grateful for the light she shined in my life!

I would like the sixth award to go to, Amy, at Sonshine Cottage. Supermom! She is a great example to me of a homemaker. She makes me laugh. She's a great mom! She shines through her blog in her little house!

Last, but nowhere near least! Is my new friend, Shaunta, at Step Into My Chambers. What a godly young wife and mother she is. I always giggle at the babies in her sidebar floating around and crowding each other out. She is the happy mama to a beautiful little girl and expecting, not one, but TWO babies in a few months. She is glowing and shining all over the place!!

Everyone in my sidebar is worth clicking on. All of those blogs inspire me in some way! The above blogs are the ones I am particularly drawn to in this season of life. I adore all of you!

The second bit of news comes from, Amy at Sonshine Cottage mentioned above. She posted today to let us all know that Jewels is back. From Eyes of Wonder! OH how I love this blog! She is the sweetest mother! I just want to be her when I grow up. Click over there and be amazed!!

Be Blessed!!

Around the house...

First of all, do you not love this picture? I clicked on it and fell in love immediately. My dream house looks a lot like this one. ;)

I have some pics for a new challenge this month, but my mom's computer was acting wacky last night so I could not download the pictures. It was going to be our Master Closet, but I found out that I needed to work in my school room a lot more so that's where I am at this week.
I completed a weekend challenge this weekend of moving some bookshelves and getting my hallway back. I plan to get some paint and paint the hallway this weekend and finally start my phase one of my Faith and Family Wall.

I am going to sit down today and prioritize all the projects I have for each room. My plan is to be living in a completely different house by Christmas. :) Of course I have made these elaborate plans before and well... I'm still not in that different house. I look around and it looks the same to me. That's why I am going to be posting pictures and progress reports. Nothing like letting it all hang out, around strangers, right?

In other news laundry while struggling is pretty much staying on track. YAY! I just keep telling myself one load at a time!
Well, I better get to work. Lots to do!

Be Blessed!

I am so lost...

I walked out of church yesterday without my Bible. It will be next Sunday before I can get it back. That's a really long time! I feel like my right arm is missing. Where did I read last? What about the prayer requests written on the notebook I keep in the Bible? How am I supposed to start this new Bible study without MY Bible to mark up? Why can't I remember the quotes I wrote in the front to inspire me? *Sigh* It's going to be a long week. I am reading my old Bible which has so many great memories, but I miss my new Bible.

Be Blessed!

I had to share!!

You have to go to The Vintage Housewife's Blog right now and see what magic she preformed on her Vintage Travel Trailer. Its a miracle!! And oh so fun!

A few days late...

I know I promised this post on Monday, but, well... you know how that goes. LOL.

Hopefully I am getting back into some sort of routine and can start posting daily again. I do so love to post. But as you all know the chicklets and the roost must come first. (Children and home for any who don't speak my language. LOL)

School went great Monday.

We start with circle time. Here we all come together. We read a portion of Matthew and the kids draw a picture of what we read about. We work on any memorization. Currently it's Proverbs chapter one and a poem called Godfrey Gordon Gustavas Gore. We also review some of the stuff we memorized before. Books of the Bible, other poems, the 12 disciples... stuff like that. I'm working on an idea for a Memorization notebook for each kid, but have not done that yet.

While Karly practices her piano I start school with Tamara and Adrian.

Math: Saxon 1

Reading: Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Their Child To Read

Handwriting: A Reason For Handwriting K (I was not going to do handwriting with them just yet, but they begged! :)

Jonathan gets some small toys to play with behind me for this time.

Kelsie works on her handwriting or copywork or corrections during this half hour.

While Kelsie practices the piano I do some reading with Tamara and Adrian from various books we have. Jonathan usually joins us.

Karly works on handwriting, copywork, or corrections during this time.

We take a half hour break here. Then I start with Karly.

This year she is doing:

Math: Saxon 5/4

Handwriting: Finishing up the last book in the A Reason For Handwriting book. When she's done with that we are going to do some fun book projects

Grammer: Learning Language Arts Through Literature Yellow book

Copywork and Cooking.

Then it's Kelsie's turn.

Math: Finishing up Saxon 2, will start Saxon 3 in about 2 weeks.

Handwriting: A Reason For Handwriting the Transition book. She is finishing up learning the cursive letters and will move into the verses.. I think next week.

Grammer: Learning Language Arts Through Literature Red book.

Copywork.

Jonathan and I are reading and playing. He loves to sort things. He knows most of his colors though he won't tell you on demand. He likes sitting with us while we do reading.
Genius alert: He can count to ten forwards and backwards. I think his siblings taught him this. LOL

We are only doing three days of school a week. We school mostly year round so I don't really need four or five days. On Tuesdays we have Bible study and dance and on Wednesdays we have co-op. It just was not practical to try to force school into those two days.

I hope everyone else is having a great year or start to the year.

Be Blessed!

So much to say..so little time to say it! :)

I started school with the kids again yesterday. Got it all done too! YAY!
I also started a fast/cleanse yesterday... hmm.. I will let you all know how it goes.

I will be on here later this afternoon when the kids lay down to post more about the latest happenings around our home!

Be Blessed!