As I was in the kitchen today...

...all of a sudden I wanted to slam my hot pink-giraffe printed broom down on the tile. I wanted to stomp my feet, throw my fists to my sides, lift my head to God and yell, 'But I want it now!' I really did think this. I could see myself in my mind doing it. I'm so glad I didn't actually do it. I would have had to explain this embarrassing behavior to two wide eyed children.

This is the problem...The Lord has planted a couple seeds in my heart. He has given me a couple visions in my mind. He has gifted me a couple desires in my soul. The problem is...He has told me to wait.

While lying in bed tonight I was reminded of my childish behavior and my need of repentance. 'But you didn't really do what you wanted to do' some of you may be thinking. But I did. My childish attitude was in my heart. It was in my mind. It was in my soul. And it was ugly. I asked the Lord to forgive me which he graciously did ya know {Grin}. He listened to my frustrations and he granted me comfort.

He reminded me of faithful Noah who built an ark for 120 years for a flood that was unimaginable since there had never been rain and no great sea was near to cause a flood. He reminded me of patient Abram who was to be a father of a great nation yet did not receive his first child until he was Abraham and 100 years old. *sigh* Thank you Jesus for your comfort.

I believe I will sleep in peace tonight as I have realized my rightful place in the Father's Hands.

"And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." Hebrews 6:15   

At this moment...

We're dreaming about a homestead in the country.

We're pondering living off grid.

I have 3 bags of organic apples to make into yummy apple butter

and chunky applesauce.

I have 2 bags of pomegranates to make into jelly.

The kids and I are remodeling the chicken coop.

The backyard bushes need to be trimmed...badly.

I'm mentally planning our food storage.

I want a couple of these.

I want to try one of these.
I'm scared to try this but I still want one :)

Excited for my new book to come in the mail.

Because of our puppy I need to replant our carrots, lettuce, and broccoli.

I'm so glad fall is here.

I'm so thankful for where the Lord has me.

Where are you at this moment?

Something Sweet

Conversation With Lego Men

My Son: Want me to show you where my church is?
Lego Man: Yep
My Son: My church is at my home. My mom teaches me.

This made my heart smile. I never want to forget that conversation. Ever.

Where do your children learn about the Lord?

A Mother's Prayer...my prayer

Dear Lord,

         So far today I've done all right. I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper, I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or very indulgent. I'm very grateful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm going to need a lot more help. Amen.

What A Waste!

I am not a Tree Hugger. I am not a Save The Planet or forest or ocean person. But I HATE waste! I LOATH...yes I said loath in 2011...the Buy and Trash Lifestyle America has embraced. Flip on the tele. Nothing is good enough. Isn't that what they're telling us? Isn't that what we are teaching our kids and feeding ourselves?? That what we buy today will be less than next year. Your phone, your clothes, your decor, your video games, your Rubbermaid lunch thingy, even your cool BPA Free water container. I think we have lost the reality that these things have to go somewhere when they are discarded...the trash. In a big hole in the ground...forever...doing nothing...going nowhere...forever.

This bugs me. Can you tell?

Call me crazy...this is what we have changed:

We use glass not plastic for almost everything.
Why? Because there are no toxins in glass and you can use them over and over and over again. And food just looks so much better in glass, all pretty and shiny.

We use our own grocery bags (when I remember to put them back in the car!).
Why? Because you can use them over again, wash them, buy really cute/fun or masculine ones, and sometimes get 6cents off (each bag) your grocery bill!

We recycle cardboard, paper, and soon plastic.
Why? Because it's so easy and you'll be amazed at how your pick up trash can is only half full each week or less.

We donate instead of trash. And buy used when we can.
Why? Because someone's trash can be someone's treasure. And! It's so much cheaper to buy used of course :)

We buy from the bulk section. 
Why? Because it's so much cheaper! And! there is so much less packaging (to waste).

Our newest thing is using reusable produce bags.
Why? Because throwing those flimsy plastic bags away drives me nuts and I detest food in plastic.

I first planned on sewing fabric ones with drawstrings but then the checker would have to take them out of the bag for their #s and you don't want a frustrated checker so I decided to look for laundry bags with zips but I was at the Dollar Tree and found a four pack or mesh bags with drawstrings. So $3 later I have 12 bags and didn't sew a stitch!

I didn't one day wake up and say 'We are going GREEN!' It happened one thing at a time. I want to be a good steward with what The Lord has given us; with our health, with our money, and with his glorious land. We can not save our planet. Because of sin we are living on an earth that is slowly dying just like us but that doesn't mean we throw caution to the wind, right?

Here's a link on making your own grocery bags:
http://tipnut.com/35-reusable-grocery-bags-totes-free-patterns/


Check out this video and be inspired!

Finding Joy In Your Father's House

I came across this book in The Vision Forum Catalog....

By age fourteen, Jasmine Baucham’s little-girl dreams of becoming a mommy were supplanted by bigger visions of winning the Pulitzer Prize or an Oscar and appearing on Oprah. She began viewing the calling of home and marriage as second-rate. Then her world was radically challenged by the Scriptures, as she went from craving personal renown to craving to please the Lord through delighting in his design for the joyful home — an even bigger dream, she realized, than stardom.

In Joyfully at Home, Jasmine writes with verve and transparency about her own struggles and triumphs as a young woman, encouraging other girls to embrace a vision for the home as a hub of ministry and discipleship and as a training ground for life ahead. With humor, humility, and heart, Jasmine tackles the tough questions girls face, offering practical counsel on how to overcome false views of marriage, husbands, and singleness.

I want to encourage young women . . . to be enthusiastic and vibrant, purposeful and driven, meticulous and passionately focused in pursuit of the Lord's will for their time at home. —Jasmine Baucham

Why do single young women choose to stay at home? Can they be fulfilled and content under their father's roof? What do they do with their time? Jasmine Baucham has written a winsome, compelling, and hard-hitting book which will encourage and inspire all the women in your home! Joyfully at Home will challenge your thinking and help you honestly answer the really tough questions. —Beall Phillips


After reading this I sat back and thought...whoa.

My mom remarried while I was in high school. She had a new marriage, a full time job, and 3 younger children. She may not have intentionally pushed me out but I felt like I didn't have a place at home. So I left and got my first apartment a week before I graduated. I came to the Lord shortly after that and moved back home. Met a boy, fell in love, moved out, and married him 6 months after meeting him. I can look back and say...Yeah, I was seeking a home. I needed to feel needed. To be a part of something. And thankfully God brought me my husband.

Before I read about this book I've said the following...
My kids will work at 16.
My kids will leave the house soon after they graduate.
We won't push them to go to college but they have to do something.

I brought this up to a friend of mine. She was home schooled, her family loves the Lord, and she's still at home. I told her about this book and that I'd never even thought this was an option in a family. I ask her,'Were you guys encouraged to stay home until marriage?' And this is what they were taught...

Pursue your passions.
Seek God always.

They weren't told they had to leave, or to go to school, or to find a job. Pursue your passions. Seek God always. Go from there...that's it.

That's all there is isn't there? In life I mean. Doesn't God give you the desires of your heart? The desires of His heart for you? Should we lean not on our own understanding??

How is this not obvious? How is this not what we are teaching our children?? Guess what...

We will not push our children out.
They will always have a place in our home...until they marry of course :)
We will give them the tools to pursue their passions.
We will encourage them to seek God always.

Thank you ST your family has inspired me in more ways than one.

Staying on Track

I love the whole house clean. And it was do-able with one child but with two? Forget it. There are just not enough hours in the day to clean every room, enjoy some playtime, make and eat 6 meals a day without mom or the kids melting down. So! About 6 months ago I packed up quite a bit of my OCD-ness and settled wrote a game plan.

Monday- Laundry (fold and put away)
Tuesday- Vacuum Living Room/Sweep/Mop
Wednesday- Bathrooms
Thursday- Master Bedroom
Friday- Kids Rooms
Saturday- Kitchen (only sometimes...since it gets cleaned after every meal)
Sunday- Wash All Clothes/Bedding  (I only want to do laundry once a week and cloth diapers are usually in the washer during the week)

I know, simple right?? It will be nice when my kids are older and I can divide and conquer but until then I'd rather keep my sanity and the love of my kids. I'm totally a planner so every morning I make myself a list of what I need done and want done. The cleaning of the day is Top Priority! Then I can move to the rest and if they don't all get done it's not a big deal I just move them onto the next day. Everything eventually gets done and I can look at the bathrooms or laundry and take peace in the fact that I won't see them again for 7 days :) And now I feel like I'm planning my day around my little loves instead of working them in my overachiever schedule.

Why did I share this? Maybe you're dealing with this issue too and this will help? More because I want to stay accountable in this area {Grin}

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

A bit late, I know.

Can I just say I love new beginnings. Being able to look at the past and see how far we've come as a family, as friends, and in our journey with the Lord. Two years ago the Lord spoke to me about relationships...some that I had to cut off, some I had to take a few steps back from, and a couple I had to work on. It was a good training for me and I have to remind myself of that training often. Last year He spoke to me about being different. This training will carry into 2011 as well for we have much to learn in this area. He showed us that our calling as a family is different even paired up next most christian families. This has been hard at times...some days we just want to be the same but of course we want to do what we have been made to do so that feeling quickly passes {Grin}. This year I think My Father will be talking to me about time...

The two weeks before Christmas the kids were driving me crazy. There was disobedience all over the place. Which means I was spending most of my day correcting and re-training...and exhausted by 8pm. After all that I was seeing NO RESULTS! Which is weird for my kids. So I'm talking to the Lord one day and say 'Ok. They are doing this and I'm doing this over and over and over again. I'm getting no where. What's going on?' And as plain as day I hear...'Time. You're not spending time with them.'

So four days of putting them back in their number 2 priority slot (where they should have been that two weeks) and TaDa! My real kids are back.

Moving on...

We have some traditions for Christmas....we:
1. Cruised neighborhoods looking at lights
2. Baked cookies for our neighbors
3. Unwrapped our nativity scene one day at a time (two pieces at a time)
4. Made cupcakes for Jesus' Bday
5. Decorated the tree with only white lights, a home made paper garland, and 4 homemade ornaments (I really wanted to keep it simple this year)
6. Little Astronaut and I made a new star for the top of our tree with some yellow felt and lots of glitter
7. We hung up a stocking for Jesus and wrote him letters and drew him pictures for his bday
8. Bought two main gifts for the kids...one from us and one from Jesus. (and stocking stuffers)
    We don't buy a lot of gifts for Christmas because we want to keep it about Jesus. Some people think  that's weird but I just tell them that we can (and do) buy our kids stuff anytime of the year but Christmas is really not about them.

Next year I want to:
1. Write letters to our friends to remind them how special they are to us
2. Have our nativity on our dining table and each night move the wise men around the house as they follow the star to baby Jesus

What did you do this year? Anything you want to do next year?

Desires Of Your Heart

Delight yourself in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:4,5


My in-laws bought some property a few years ago in the middle of nowhere. It's only two hours away from us so we visit once a month. We live here everyday but our hearts are really on the ranch. There is such  peace, purpose, and a sense of freedom on the land that it gets harder to come home to the busyness of life. Not that we are not busy there. There are houses to restore, grass to plant, gardens to work, and tumbleweeds by the field full. It's work up there and it looks a bit run down but it'll get there soon enough.

We know that the Lord will move us there and at times we feel anxious for it. We've never felt rooted somewhere and have always seen friends, churches, living space, etc. as seasons in our life. Everything has felt temporary even if we've really enjoyed it. So now that all makes sense. We grew up in this town but our kids won't. They'll be country kids and that sounds great to me!

Anyways, where I'm going with this is......

I was talking to the Lord about moving and he brought to mind when I was little I used to tell my grandparents I wanted to be a police officer, live on a ranch, have a few dogs, and horses. They would laugh it off and say 'All on an officer's salary huh?' Of course I didn't know what a 'salary' was at the time {Grin}And I don't want to be an officer anymore. But this scripture came to mind and I had to laugh to myself. God gave me this desire 20 years ago and  here I am really nearing it. I came to the Lord 9 years ago and I know that My Father loves me, wants me, and has great plans for me. And soon he'll give me and my family this every day. 

What desire has He given you?

When I Was young in the Mountains

I found this book at Goodwill Books a few months ago and I love it. It's like a summation of The Little House on the Prairie in way. It's simplicity speaks to me...calls to me...waits for me to respond.

Each page begins with... when I was young in the mountains and she talks of everyday life living in the mountains with her grandparents. Her grandfather coming home from the coal mine covered with black dust. Swimming in a dark and muddy swimming hole. Pumping water for their baths and warming up by the wood stove while her grandmother heats up cocoa. Church at the schoolhouse and walking through the cow pasture to the swimming hole for baptisms. These are my favorite pages...

When I was young in the mountains, Grandmother spread the table with hot corn bread, pinto beans, and fried okra.

On our way home, we stopped at Mr. Crawford's for a mound of white butter. Mr. Crawford and Mrs. Crawford looked alike and always smelled of sweet milk.

When I was young in the mountains, we sat on the porch swing in the evenings, and Grandfather sharpened my pencils with his pocket knife. Grandmother sometimes shelled beans and sometimes braided my hair.  the dogs lay around us, and the stars sparkled in the sky. A bobwhite whistled in the forest.

When I was young in the mountains, I never wanted to go to the ocean, and I never wanted to go to the desert. I never wanted to go anywhere else in the world, for I was in the mountains. And that was always enough.





This is the last page and whispers contentment, joy, and peace. No fancy dinners, no TV in the evening, and no rushing to soccer practice and dance. Family, spending time, and doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done. I admire this book. You may not get it or like it but I do {Grin}

Baby Steps...

We do not have cable. I know, kindda crazy. I would REALLY like no tv period....but that's not going to happen :)  So...I'm over it. 

Christmas 2008 I received The Duggars: 20 and Counting! book. First I'll say it's such an inspiring read whether you have 2 children or 20. Anyways, this is what's on page 30...

'Dr.Wheat (family physician and author) counseled us and encouraged us not to have a TV and not to have any pets during the first year of marriage. He said those things would distract us from each other....After the end of that first year,we got a pet rabbit and a television. We had the cable service hooked up and were instantly glued to the television during every waking moment at home. But the more we watched, the more we realized how bad some of the TV programming was, and we also saw our communication drop off.' (They now only watch educational videos, special events, and sometimes a Razorbacks game.)

Reading this was such a confirmation in what I had been feeling for the last few years but couldn't put into words. I didn't think my husband would be up for it (for sports mostly) but I told The Lord this is what I was feeling and wanted for our family and low and behold when I mentioned it to him he said...'Well, we spend like $60  a month on cable right? We would be saving some money. Long Pause Yeah, lets try it out. We can always turn it back on.' I think I canceled it that next day just in case he changed his mind!

So here we are a year and a half later without cable and we love it. Unknowingly at the moment this was our first step in simplifying our lives. We have Netflix and enjoy it so don't think we don't watch ANYTHING. We just watch things we want to. Here are some other reasons I was concerned about having cable in the home:

- We get to monitor closely what we all watch and no commercials telling us what we "need"
- We don't do Halloween, Santa Clause, or the Easter bunny and the preschool shows my kids watch of   course had these themes for weeks (we did a lot of renting during those seasons)
- My husband and myself don't have to watch all the sex-hyped movie/show previews
- MY kids aren't concerned with the latest toys, cereal, juice, theme parks, etc. We go places of course. Just not because Mickey Mouse or Shamu told us too :)

So! I dare you...no double dare you! Turn off your cable for 3 months, start connecting with your spouse and children. Two things will happen: You may find out you really like the people you live with. OR That you don't know them at all and what a great opportunity to do something about it.

Simple

A Simple Life. What does that mean? And what does it look like? What examples do we have to glean from?

Over the past two years I have felt a tug from The Lord. Only a year ago did I discover what it was. To strip. (Get your mind out of the gutter!) I've found the desire; no the need to start striping our lives of the clutter, the constant moving or need to be doing something or going somewhere. 

Constant busyness leads to discontent. And this is where I find myself. Ourselves really. I see it in myself when I've had a full week of errands and 'to-do's'. I see in my kids when we've watched too much TV or had constant playmates all week. We just can't find peace with ourselves when the box in my planner says...nothing.

So here's my new mission...simplify. Why? I want to cherish these years with my kids and husband and really live in the moment. Jesus has a plan for our family and I don't want to miss it because I'm busy planning on what I'll do in heaven.

You may like the chaos and really thrive on it and be wondering what the heck I'm talking about with this slowing down stuff. But...I can relate. Two years ago I would have said 'I love being busy!' and 8 years ago I would have said 'I thrive under pressure and love it!' So bear with me. I'm excited see where this leads us.