End of Summer Craziness!

Isn't Carese adorable in her little denim jumper?

I have had very little time for the computer as we have been so busy!  Busy is great though - I'm so thankful to be active again.  I've been off crutches for over 6 weeks now and every week I'm getting stronger!  I was even able to walk through Woodland Park Zoo with out any knee pain 2 weeks ago - that was 5 hours of walking!

Here are some highlights of our last month:

The Mummy Mystery - can you guess who this is?

We decided one morning late in August that it would be fun to take a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo, but if we waited a week it would be exceptionally busy due to the Labor Day Weekend, so we decided to go that day, and within an hour we were packed and waiting for Daryl to come home from work.  

We left at noon and got there at 2:30.  At first we couldn't find a parking place in any of the parking lots, and due to my knee and Daryl suffering from Plantar Fasciitis, we wanted to park close.  So after going through all of the parking lots, I said to the kids, "Let's all pray for a parking spot.  Let's pray for a really good spot close to the entrance and that will be in the shade when we leave."  One of the kids said, "Can we ask for that?" and I assured him that we can!  I then prayed that God would build their faith through answered prayers!  As we turned in the main parking lot, I went for the gusto - drove right to the entrance, and low and behold, a family was just getting into their car...at the VERY FIRST PARKING SPOT, closest to the entrance!  Praise God!  But the best was yet to come - when we left, our van was indeed in the shade!

We had a wonderful time at the park - the kids behaved beautifully, no whining, no "I'm tired" and no"I'm hungry" heard the whole day (I did pack portable snacks and water, so that helped!).  We left the park just minutes before it closed, but we had seen everything that we had wanted to see and were more than ready to go home, tired feet and all.

 We saw some amazing animals and many of them up close.  We even got to see the elephants get their hose down and play with the game keeper and his hose!






The giraffes were amazing, and we got to watch one walk - incredible movement in such a tall animal!  And behind the giraffes were ostriches and zebras, but I couldn't get a good picture of those!






the lions were so awesome - this male was amazing to see so close up!













We watched some episodes of "Meercat Manor" last year, so it was fun to see them in real life.  They are much better fed at the zoo, however, and were actually really cute!















 We even got to see a real Ostrich Nest!  Boy those eggs are big - I think they'd even feed out entire family for a meal with just one egg!










Late in the day, we found some of the old cages that I remember from my childhood days, only they were empty and there were signs explaining the all the tigers had passed away and they were working on making a new habitat for them before they get anymore.  Then I suddenly recognized the fence as one that Daryl's siblings had lined up on for a now infamous family photo - they all looked like mafia or something like that.  So we decided to try and replicate that.  Only we had one serious problem....even though we were tired and hungry (we had a snack right after the photo), the kids just couldn't stop smiling!

The essence of the old photo was no smiles, not one - and we wanted to do this photo as a hats off to the original.   So this first photo is one of the epic fails...we had some great laughs as they all did their best to not smile, and failed miserably!

This second is the best we got.  I regret that I didn't notice that Jessica was in the light, but I might try to photoshop that one day!  Here's the original we were trying to recreate:




Anyway, we had a wonderful time.  The highlight was the otters - they were playing with Esther through the glass!  They would swim away and hide and them come back and surprise her!

And she was also very entertained by the penguins later.  Their antics are always so entertaining!

fter the Zoo, we picked up dinner at a local Safeway and I showed the kids where I took my driving test, and signaled to turn left and went straight.  Also where Pizza and Pipes used to be.  We eventually found the freeway again (roads closed, on-ramps under construction and such).  Daryl and I were marveling at how well the day had gone and how well behaved the children had been.  

 We decided that a stop at Dairy Queen in Marysville was most decidedly called for.  We acquired out cones/blizzards and were heading out when we found that we only had first gear.  Uh Oh.  We stopped in at Jack in the Box (Daryl's new favorite place to get milk shakes), and we talked to kids about praying for the van's transmission.  We drove around the block, and still just first gear.  We stopped and shut off the engine and asked the kids to pray once more....we left and tried again...and then the tranny went "Ka-Chunk" into second gear, and then into third.  We turned around and headed for the freeway!  We held our breath until each gear change!  But it worked and we made it home, safe and sound!  I was so thrilled that God had answered our prayers yet again!  What an amazing journey of faith for our children.  Sadly, our van is now parked until we can afford a new/rebuilt transmission for it.  Thankfully our truck is still running well!

The very next day was our church's annual picnic.  We had a great time, but I only got around to taking a couple of photos - this is Elizabeth's best friend Ruby!









And here's Elizabeth with a few other church friends!

And now for our latest adventure!  We have chickens again!  Last Friday morning, I asked the kids if they would be interested in getting layers again (the last time was over 8 years ago!).  By noon we had talked to Daryl and had decided that it was time to try it again (we have recently watched Food Inc, a movie about our food industry).  I put a notice on FB about layers, and by that night these beauties were in out newly re-modeled, former coop turned playhouse turned coop!

We had "farm fresh" eggs the next day!  One of my good friend's has a new batch of layers starting to lay and they wanted to find a newhome for last year's models, so for a little cash, we found ourselves the new owners of these little ladies!  We now have 5 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Barred Rocks, 2 White Leg Horns, 2 Aracanas and 1 Orpington Buff!  When we used to have layers, I loved to have different breeds for both the look of the chickens and the colors of their eggs!  So far we've gotten brown, green/blue and white!  And someone contacted me yesterday and they want to give us 4 Americanas and a mobile coop as well as 40 pounds of feed! We'll be picking up those on Thursday.  We have also ordered 25 Red Ranger Broilers that we will be raising for meat.    God is just blessing our socks off around here!

Carese finally got to meet her daddy's twin brother!

Carese is sitting alone!

And counting blessings, we joined a gleaners groups this summer and have been so blessed with all the produce we get there.  I have been canning and freezing and dehydrating!  I haven't done that in over 8 years now (since my business took off), and it's so great to be able to teach the younger ones to help with this important job of putting up food for the winter!  So far we have 28 quarts of plums and peaches canned, 5 gallons of beans frozen, 3 gallons of tomato sauce frozen, plum and apple sauce frozen (great baby food), and tons of bananas frozen and ready to make wonderful smoothies.  We also have strawberries, blueberries and raspberries in the freezer too! I also contacted our local butcher and have ordered a 1/4 grass fed beef to split  with a friend of mine - we'll be eating better than ever this winter! I've been making good use of Daryl's overtime, so when he's working normal hours again we won't be to strapped for groceries - we'll shop in our own garage!

 

This past weekend we got to visit with Daryl's twin brother, and Carese thought he was just fine!  She even showed off and sat up all by herself for a good long time!  Carese is lighting up our lives with laughter, squeals and fun antics these days.  She's just over 14 pounds now and so healthy!

We are about to start school around here, but need to finish up a few projects in order to have the school room prepared and all our harvest preserved.  I wish we could start right now, but I just can't yet - the computers aren't talking to each other!  Daryl will be fixing that soon and then I can get their school set up.

I'm hoping to blog more regularly soon, but I can't guarantee it!  I hope you are having a wonderful fall too!

"How can you afford to have so many children?"

This was going to be a Letter to my Daughters, but it just wasn't sounding very letter-ish, so I'm posting it here!

When people hear of how many children we have in our family, we get a lot of common responses!  We often hear "you must be very patient" (I tell them I'm still learning that one), or "are they all yours" (of course they are!), or "God Bless You!" (and I say that He has, richly).  One comment or question we often get is what my husband does for a job, or how can we afford to raise so many children.  I usually share with them that we try hard to live inexpensively in order to make it possible!  Sometimes it's nearly impossible, but for the most part with care we do just fine.

We are not independently wealthy, my husband has a decent, hard working job.  But he is not our ultimate provider, God is.  God has not chosen to give us the trial of wealth (we keep asking for this trial so we can prove that we can handle it, but He has not seen fit to grant us this request!).  We have a moderate income, rich when compared to most of the world's population.  Due to the cost of our current housing, we have to be very frugal to make ends meet and this tends to lead us to live simply.

We have learned the hard way through the years that incurring debt is a very bad thing.  Even recently we have again learned this lesson the hard way.  About 1 1/2 years ago we purchased Financial Freedom Seminar, which we had discovered while looking around at the Duggar Family Website.  This really transformed the way we look at our finances.  We highly recommend this to everyone!  For us this resulted in a renewed conviction to get out of debt in every way that we can.  This has been a huge struggle for us, but we've learned so much in the process.  We have successfully paid off all our business debt, but it took over a year to do this.

Before I go any further, I need to make a confession.  This is the area of biggest struggle for me.  I know what it right, but so often I am tempted to spend money the wrong way and we end up paying for it in the long run.  God is working on me in this area, but for some reason I keep "thumping."  I'm so thankful that I serve a living God who loves me and forgives me even when I fail Him so often.

I'm going to share with you some of the ways we have "tightened our belt" so to speak - ways we have found to reduce our cost of living.  I'll start with some of the biggies and work my way down.

First things first.  Giving back to God out of a thankful heart comes first and foremost.  We have learned the hard way that when we skip this because we don't think we have enough money to last, we end up in dire straights in no time.  For some reason we keep having to learn this one over and over again.  Giving God 10% of your income right off the top is a great place to start. We tithe to our local church as well as some other worthy ministries, as God has led.

For our home loan, we have gone to a weekly payment plan, as this makes an extra payment every year, and that payment goes 100% towards the principal and this one thing will reduce the length of our mortgage by years, saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.  We are also looking at possibly selling our home in order to reduce our debt there, but with the housing market so depressed right now we are not sure if this would be short sighted.

For our transportation, our cars are all used (well used in most cases), and we do not owe anything on them.  Daryl does some of the repairs, but we do use our local, reliable auto mechanic for the big jobs.  We pay far less in car maintenance and repair than we would ever pay in car payments with interest.  Also, by owning our cars outright, we are not required to have comprehensive car insurance on our cars and this lowers our insurance expense more than you can imagine.  Due to the high price of gas, we think twice before leaving the house, and try to use the most efficient car for our errands whenever possible.  Right now that means not going to town for shopping, as the gas alone would cost around $20 round trip and we would not be saving that much by buying at the big stores over shopping at our local grocery stores.  I would recommend never purchasing a new car, or even a newer used car.  Shop around, get a mechanic to look over a car you are interested in, and learn to do car maintenance yourself - oil changes, for example, can be done by the owner and save a lot through the years.  We also shop around for the best deal in auto insurance as we are required to have that.  Our older children don't get a driver's license until they can afford to pay for their auto insurance to reduce our outlay there.

In the last year we have given up many things that we used to take for granted - we quit Netflix, we stopped renting movies (with the exception of the occasional $1/night ones) and started using the library, we stopped eating out as often as were accustomed to, I rarely get anything from an espresso stand (this was a huge sacrifice, let me tell you!), we reduced our budget for birthdays/Christmas, we reduced the number of cell phones down to just 2 (from 5),  we severely curtailed going on expensive dates (Daryl and I still date!), and found ways to date with little or no expense (like renting a movie and popping popcorn, and locking the kids out of the living room), and we gave up bowling.  Recently we decided to reduce our personal time on the computer, cutting our use of YouTube type videos and Facebook, especially the games.  We have found that our bandwidth usage has been cut in half, and we are going to be able to drop to a lower usage plan, saving us approximately $30/mo.  There were probably other things, but those are the things I can remember!  We looked over all the things we were spending our money on and got rid of or reduced in as many ways as we could.

Monthly bills can be challenging.  It's so easy to sign up for a monthly expense (magazines, cable, movies, products, album of the month, etc), yet we don't know the future, and it's easy to ignore the accumulative cost - a $20/month commitment costs $240/year!  We looked at every bill that we pay monthly and talked about how we can work to lower them.  We started being careful about leaving lights and computers on, and we were able to reduce our electric bill by over $50/mo!  We also turned down our thermostats, and although our bill hasn't gone down, it hasn't gone up at all even thought he cost of propane has gone up considerably since we started conserving.  We try to keep our water usage low conserving where we can.  We also try to always do full loads when washing/drying clothes.  We have used a clothes line in the past, but at present we do not have one set up - when it can be done, hanging clothes on the line can also lower your energy usage!

As far as school goes, we try to keep our expenses to a minimum. Switched On Schoolhouse works very well for this as multiple students can use the same curriculum with no additional expense, and they can be saved for younger ones coming up.  We also shop at our local homeschool second hand store (Homeschool Recyclers) and get most of our materials second hand, saving a lot!  We also re-sell our used homeschool supplies there and then can use the credit once they sell to purchase what we need - the last time I was there she actually owed me money!

Soaps we made last year!

We also save a lot of money making our own soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotions, deodorant, and cleaning solutions!  I highly recommend researching the internet for simple recipes for these.  Even soap making is easy if you do melt and pour, and it's fun too!  This also saves on garbage as you re-use your packaging over and over again!

Clothing with this many people in the family can be a challenge.  We use a consignment store in town (Wee Ones) to re-sell any clothes/books/toys that we are finished with that are still in good shape.  I also re-sell returned/second quality items from my home business there.  I almost always have some credit there to use to purchase clothes/shoes/books!  If we can't find what we need at Wee Ones, we go to Goodwill and/or Value Village to get what we need.  Once in a while we just can't get what is needed and will purchase new at Walmart or Target, but that is rare.  Although I haven't used it yet, I have heard of a place in our county where you can go to get free clothes, I'm sure that is a great saving for many families!  Of course we also make great use of handing clothes down from one child to the next.  I keep bins of sized clothing in our attic for when clothes are not in used, and it's so nice to be able to go up there and get the next size of clothes out!  Having 3 little boys in a row (and now 3 little girls), the older they get, the fewer clothes actually survive well enough for storage or re-selling.

Carese, just 5 pounds, wearing our old style Snap-EZ Preemie Pocket Diaper!

And, of course, I have to talk about using cloth!  Even though I now own a cloth diaper company, Snap-EZ, I can honestly say that I would use cloth diapers even if I didn't.  I started using cloth right from the beginning - back in 1986 I used prefolds, pins and plastic pants with our first baby, using a diaper service.  I only did that for about 6 months, as I was working out of the home and disposables were more convenient.  I used cloth diapers again once I was a stay at home mom, and each of my subsequent children have been in cloth diapers at least some of the time.  I've used so many different versions, but I really love using pocket diapers, especially the Multi-Size pocket diapers, as I can bring some Snap Extenders along and use Carese's diapers on Esther when needed!  We rarely purchase disposables, as using cloth saves us so much.  When we were using cloth (like when Esther was in the hospital for weeks at a time), our water bill didn't even flinch, so I know we are saving money doing cloth.  We also use cloth wipes.  I estimate that with two in diapers we are saving around $40 - 50 per month, plus we don't have stinky garbage!  We also save money by using cloth for our monthly cycles most of the time.  It's easy to do, saves money, and then we don't have to purchase these items in the store (I'm always a little embarrassed to purchase these private items).  Each of the women in our home has their own personal stash and they care for them.

Baking Bread - a Whisper Mill and a Bosch are great,
but not necessary - I made our bread by hand for a long time!

And lastly, food. This is a biggy!  One of the biggest things we do to keep our food budget low is to make all our own bread!  We purchase the wheat berries in 50 pound bags, grind it into wheat flour and make our own, delicious bread.  We also pick berries at Barbie's Berries in season and freeze them to make jam all year round (when we run out too soon, we purchase the frozen gallons of berries from the Barbie's Berries).  This tastes so much better than store bought, and is cost effective too!  We try to have hot breakfasts during the week - oatmeal, cream of wheat, pancakes and such - all made from scratch.  We don't buy pop or koolaide, and only the little ones get juice (Esther has a milk allergy).  Our kids are encouraged to drink water, and our milk is reserved for cooking, on hot cereal and cold cereal when we have it.  We shop at Costco for things that we can really save on there - butter, almonds, chocolate chips and toilet paper to name a few - but we have to consider the cost of gas to get there which might not off-set the savings.  Generally speaking, we have a food budget at around $150/week to make cooking/eating comfortable.  I'd love to have $250 a week as that would allow for a few conveniences, but it's been a long time since we had that much available every week!  More recently we have been making ends meet for even less - last week we only spent $90, and this week $70 so far (not counting the 60 pounds of frozen strawberries I picked up at a steal of a deal since the new season is starting!).  To keep our costs this low, it means using up the items on our shelves and in the freezer that we don't normally use, but it's good to clean out the freezer and use up older canned goods once in a while!  One sacrifice we make when we have to is forgoing fresh foods - fruits especially can get very expensive.  I don't recommend this, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do!  I used to do a lot of canning, and I hope to do that again this year.  Not sure if that saves a lot of money, but it's fresher, home canned and there when you need it through out the year!  We eat simply, and use left overs for lunches a lot.  We try to make snacks instead of purchasing snacks - popcorn and cookies instead of chips and twinkies for example.  One way we also reduce our grocery bill is to use the weekly ads and make our menu to use what is a good price that week.  We tried "couponing" but found that we ended up purchasing things that we would not normally purchase (luxury items), plus we spent more on gas to get the "deals" negating the savings.  Also, going to lots of stores also used up my valuable time too.  It works great for others, but we not profitable for us.  One of the biggest things we do to save on groceries, is we create a menu for the week, including breakfasts, lunches and dinners as well as snacks, before we leave the house.  We base this menu on what we have available, and what is on special at the stores.  Then we make a comprehensive shopping list, noting the approximate cost of each item.  Then we check the total to see if it is close to our budget, and if it's too high, we try to trim off a few items that are not essential.  I try to have the list be less than our budget just in case.  We try to never shop while hungry, take cash and stay in the budget.  If we remember something we missed on the list, we can get it, but hopefully something cost less than expected to cover the overage.

Berry processing 2011

In general, I do our bookkeeping once a week, tithing and paying the bills and see what's left over.  I use that as our budget for food and clothes, after setting aside money for gas in the cars.  Then I make up our menu and grocery list.  We never seem to have anything left over, but that's OK as God is giving us exactly what He has deemed the right amount of income for us at this time.  I struggle with this when times are tight, but as Paul says in Philipians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."  We have done a lot of praying this year about our finances.  We've even gone so far as to make specific prayers for our needs, and watching to see if we got orders in our home business that would cover those expenses!  This is great for building our children's faith in God's provision (and ours too!).  We are doing this right now as we have had some unexpected expenses this year (new baby, septic system crashed, attic needed venting to name a few), and God has and is providing for us.

I think that's everything...but there's probably more.  I don't think we are experts in frugality, but we are working hard to live as economically as we can.  I have heard that the Duggars shop second hand and save the difference...wish we could save the difference, but that is a great way to do it!  They also live completely debt free, and I highly respect them for accomplishing that!

I hope someone has benefitted from my sharing our adventures in home economics! If I haven't touched on something, ask me and I'll do my best to answer your question.  If you have found a way to cut your expenses, please share by commenting below!  We're always looking for more ways to save!

Kitties and Weeds...

We have kittens in the house once again...we love kittens, and so far we've let each of the girls, once they are 16, get their own cat, let them have 1 - 2 batches of kittens, and then get her fixed (all on their own budget).  So this year it's Rebekah.  She picked out her kitten from a friends house just over a years ago.  Her name is "Sweet Tea"...but it sounds like "Sweetie".

We named her that in honor of our first kitten, who was really Jeremy's cat, as this cat looks so much like she did!

Here are some recent kitty photos:

As you can see, these are going to be very mellow kittens, used to lots of handling!  

This year we had oodles of rain this spring, and very few days of sun, so I was not able to do any weeding in my flower gardens so far this year, as I used the sunny days to work on putting in more back yard that is mow-able!  So, this week I'm tackling the weeding and I had one weed I've been watching....and I think we had some kind of uranium leak in the back yard or something...this is some kind of freak of nature:

I have no idea what this is, but it looks to be from the thistle family...it was over 10 feet tall!  It had a small root base so it came out easily.  Anyone have any ideas???

I'll try to share some "after" photos of the gardens...I'm hoping to get some new plants from the friend who is re-doing her flower gardens and has invited me to come and take anything I want...free plants!!!  God's providence is amazing!

Our New Learning Curve

Looking out over the years we have been a family, I can see how, at times, God has taken us by the hand and led us into times of great learning, and then times of living out what we have learned, and then due to our human/sinful nature we slide into "the easy life" and go with the flow, usually backwards/downwards.

Our biggest time of learning and growing in the past was just before and the first years after we moved onto this property.  We learned that our home was intended to be the center of our life, cultivating a love for God and His word, and learning to be frugal, depending less and less on materialism and worldly living.  We homeschooled in earnest, we learned to bake bread and can nearly everything, raise animals, care for chickens all year long (not as easy as it sounds) and enjoy the goodness of fresh eggs, eating a healthy, balanced diet, and read books and magazines almost constantly as we learned how to function as a family in a way that was pleasing to our Lord.

We began to see that our world has lost the vision for families - dating is recreational intimacy until you finally decide that is is time to get married, "shacking up" is the best way to find out if you are compatible for marriage, marriages are not meant to last a lifetime (dating has trained us that when the going get tough, you get out), children are an accessory while they are babies, and then an inconvenience once they are toddlers and not so cute anymore, and the sooner you can get them in preschool/daycare the better, men are useless so women need to take command of their homes (and if they are useless, why keep them around once they have served their purpose and given us our children), religion is something that is there when you need it - holidays and funerals, and our sole purpose here on earth is to live for ourselves ("you deserve a break today") and so much more.

We began to see that being a Christian was a relationship with God Almighty, and that out of  our love for Him we were to seek how best to live our lives in a manner that would please Him, bring glory to His name, and allow us to enjoy Him forever.  When we began to question everything the world had taught us, and went to the Bible and wise counselors/writers we found that, as most of Jesus' teaching, the way we had been taught to view our world was backwards!  It is not about us, it is about God and others. That the years God gives us before marriage are to be purposeful - serving God, learning the skills necessary to be godly husbands/wives and godly fathers/mothers!  That God is very involved in marriage, and that He will lead and guide us to the one He has designed as our perfect counterpart, and that we should never enter into a relationship without guidance and commitment to find out if the other person is that one that God has for us! Marriage is sacred - so sacred that God says it is a view of the relationship of the body of Christ to Christ Himself!  So sacred, that we are to remain pure, both physically and emotionally, so that when we enter the covenant of marriage we come with no baggage! That children are a blessing,that God never makes mistakes and that we should rest in His sovereignty as to the children He wants to place in our family, and that they are to be taught at home by their parents every day and in all activities - God holds parents accountable for their upbringing and if we delegate that to the schools, that does not remove our accountability.  That men have the God given responsibility to lead their family, to desciple their wives and children in the way of the Lord, to protect their sons and daughters from the evil in our world, and to train their sons to be great men of God, ready to make a difference in their world for Christ.  That women have been given the responsibility to raise their daughters (and other younger women) to be godly women who understand that their roles as a wife and mother are sacred and a high calling, to be taken very seriously, not as a part time job, but as a lifetime of service for their Lord.

Over the last 16 years, we have tried to follow what the Lord has taught us, but at times the busy-ness of a growing family can wear you down, especially if you are not in a network of other believers who have made similar commitments in their lives.  I went through a severe time of loneliness and discouragement for a couple of years, and then, seven years ago, we were led by the Lord to change churches, and we have been so blessed there.  We have sat under solid, Bible based, teaching, found in others examples of what we were hoping to have in our homes, new books to read that encouraged us in our walk with the Lord and so much more.  But, then our home business started, and it seemed to take over my life and that of our family.  We were being taught at church, but our family and personal growth was stagnating and we began to lose our focus and zeal.

Then the Lord blessed us with Esther, and our lives were pushed out of our comfort zone.  We, once again, had to remind ourselves what we believed about God, our family, our mission in life and find out what God wanted us to do.  I committed myself to daily time in God's word, and praying faithfully for my husband, my children and others.   It's taken a couple of years, but the Lord is once again holding our hands and leading us in paths of learning and growing, and it feels so good and inspiring!  It's exciting!

The past two years I have read so many books that have helped me to solidify my purpose in this life - to bring glory to God, to serve and support my husband (especially in prayer), to raise my children to glorify God and prepare them for lives that are transformed by grace, and to minister to younger women, encouraging them to serve the Lord in their homes.

Last weekend was like getting an energy drink and new glasses at the same time!  We went to the Christian Heritage Homeschool Conference for the first time, and oh, how I wish we had attended past ones, but God knew what we needed and when we needed it, and oh, how we needed this!  Here are some of the things I have taken home and am working to put into action in our home now:

Deuteronomy 6: 4 - 7 is the pattern for homes - teaching God's word at all times, in all circumstances, and it is done by the parents.  This is discipleship!  No where in the Bible does it talk about "education".  While being "educated" is important to be a functional part of our society, it is second to a working knowledge of God's word and a relationship with God the Father through the blood of Jesus Christ.  If we pack our children's heads with "knowledge" yet fail to bring them to the throne of grace, we have failed indeed.  All "education" should be saturated with the Word of God, in the context of a God who created this world for us, who loved us enough to make our world amazing and beautiful, that He created us with great minds that can be used to bring Him glory, or to serve the god of this world.  Knowledge without wisdom is folly.

Romans 12:2 teaches us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed with the renewing of our minds - we are also told to take very thought captive, to think on things that are true, pure, lovely and the like.  It is so easy to let our thoughts be filled with what we have been taught in our childhood.  But we must think on what is true - compare every thought to God's word.  How has the world's philosophy, attitudes and beliefs crept into our thoughts.  Are we passing on false teachings?  Are we using the worlds methods of child rearing - behavior modification verses Godly instruction and rebuke.

Do we model a life of gratitude to God, do we handle the Word of God with reverence?  Going to God's Word in times of confusion and trials, or do we "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps"?

It was also shared at the conference that it does not matter what we bring to the table - God is more than able to use us as we are!  He just wants us to do what He has called us to do and He will equip us and His grace will "fill in the gaps"!  He has given us all that we have and we are just presenting it back to Him as an offering.  And in James God promises that if we lack wisdom, all we have to do is ask and He will give to us abundantly!  Without reproach (with God there are no "stupid questions!" - don't you love that!)!

So, what changes are we trying to make in our home, now that we have become aware of how much more we could be doing in our homes to bring glory to God?

We are putting the reading and memorizing of scripture first and foremost in our day.  We are going to be studying the lives of great Christians in history.  We are going to try to apply scripture to our lives day in and day out.  We are going to equip our children to think through the filter of God's word, not worldly knowledge.  We are placing our family worship as the most important thing that we do each day - studying proverbs and the shorter catechism.  We are reading Pilgrims Progress together as a family in the evenings instead of watching movies.  And every morning the first activity for everyone is reading God's word and taking time in prayer, individually and together after breakfast.

I am excited to see what God will be doing in our family in the years to come.  I am excited to see what God will be doing in my heart and through our home as well.  I pray that we will not lose our fervor, that we will continue to strive towards further growth in grace, and that we will continue to become Christ-like in our lives and that through us and other families like ours, many more will see God's great design for families.

For further information:
Kevin Swanson was the keynote speaker and has a weekly radio broadcast, he also has created curriculum based on great autobiographies of Christians throughout history, and study guides/devotionals on Proverbs, psalms and some new testament books! - http://www.generationswithvision.com/Broadcasts/
Christian Heritage was the sponsor of the conference, and you can purchase CD of past classes and soon you'll be able to purchase ones from this one, they also host regional picnics in the fall:
http://www.christianheritageonline.org/

And I'd like to leave you with the hymn we sang at the end (well, others sang while I cried)

A Christian Home
O give us homes built firm upon the Saviour,
Where Christ is Head, and Counsellor and Guide;
Where ev'ry child is taught His love and favor
And gives his heart to Christ, the crucified:
How sweet to know that tho' his footsteps waver
His faithful Lord is walking by his side!

O give us homes with godly fathers, mothers,
Who always place their hope and trust in Him;
Whose tender patience turmoil never bothers,
Whose calm and courage trouble cannot dim;
A home where each finds joy in serving others,
And love still shines, tho' days be dark and grim.

O give us homes where Christ is Lord and Master,
The Bible read, the precious hymns still sung;
Where prayer comes first in peace or in disaster,
And praise is natural speech to ev'ry tongue;
Where mountains move before a faith that's vaster,
And Christ sufficient is for old and young.

O Lord, our God, our homes are Thine forever!
We trust to Thee their problems, toil, and care;
Their bonds of love no enemy can sever
If Thou art always Lord and Master there:
Be Thou the center of our least endeavor:
Be Thou our Guest, our hearts and homes to share

Thoughtless Thursday

I am really going to try to start blogging every weekday, but Thursdays will definitely be the toughest day for this as it is our "town" day - and we usually have at least 4 appointments to go to, shopping to do, filling up the gas tanks, and other errands to run....so we plan a short school day (only 2 subjects), and I am usually wiped out by the end of the day.

So, my posting, if any will be short and sweet - maybe just photos...like some bloggers who do a Wordless Wednesday - any ideas on a Thursday title that would work for short blog posts, or no words....Thoughtless Thursdays might work....

My Sweet Valentine - you can see the afghan I am crocheting for Daryl just behind her....

The results of Monday's early morning madness (remember the fire?) - the bread didn't taste like smoke at all and baked fine even though we had to open the door and turn off the oven right in the middle of baking the bread!  I was able to make 6 gallons of strawberry/raspberry freezer jam (bought gallon buckets of frozen berries from Barbie's Berries - where we pick every year!)

The beautiful sunset night before last

Rachel's homemade volcano...needs work, but it was fun

Esther like the shoes she was wearing today - she wore them a year ago, but now they are getting too small...they are my favorite too - pink and white Mary Janes...

for your viewing pleasure

Some photos of life around here over the last week or so:

Home Made Pizza!

And Crazy Bread

Silly Kitty, Sinks are for Kids!

Remind you of anything?

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

Things I am looking forward to doing again....

There are many things that don't get done when a mom is too busy...and some of these little things can be so satisfying, so here's my list of things that I am thankful that I will soon have the opportunity to do again:
Put away folded laundry
match all socks
make bread from scratch
bake cookies
sew curtains/valances
sew clothes for my kids
catch up in my family scrapbook
read books to the kids
crochet and knit
Do a thanksgiving devotional every day the week of Thanksgiving
play games
take walks
bake oodles of Christmas cookies and candies
rock my baby
read to the kids before bed
pick up the violin again
Bake cinnamon rolls
teach piano lessons
being consistent in my discipline
string popcorn for the Christmas Tree
sing in a choir
play piano again
make handmade Christmas gift 
gardening (well, next spring)
canning (next year anyway)
teaching the kids as things come up
just sitting still and watching all the wonderful things that happen around here...

It's not that I haven't done any of these things in the last 6 years, but I have had so little time to spare, that the opportunities to do these things are few and far between, where-as before I was running a home business, most of those things I did almost every day, or every week, or every season....

Sorry no photos today, but I hope my list has brought mental photos to your mind and maybe gave you some inspiration of how you could bless your family this holiday season!  I am so excited to celebrate the holidays with out the pressures I usually have...I am hoping that in a couple of weeks things will be settled enough for Jessica to pretty much run things until they wind down....(probably wishful thinking, but I can hope, can't I??)