Why I haven't been blogging

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I decided at the beginning of the summer that we needed to "unplug." Less T.V. and computer, more God. Once I got off the computer,  I realized how much of my time gets sucked away when I am on it! I also realized how I really, really, really needed to be more of a "present mom." Not presents like gifts, but present like really there!  When I'm not "really there," well, you know the saying... "When the cat's away, the mice will play!"  Messes. Fighting.  Sin.  Not the godly character I would like to cultivate in my children!  At the end of each day I would realize, another day had gone by without reading Scripture or praying with them.  My excuse was, "that's Dallas' responsibility," which is true, but his job is different from week to week and he is not always able to get it into his schedule, either.  So it's my responsibility, as well!

Something else I have been working on all summer is getting my thoughts organized, then getting them on paper, then following the plan.  Once upon a time, I had a notebook organizer.  I made it up myself, with printed planner sheets from MicrosoftWorks and plain notebook paper.  The dividers were recycled from something else, I just flipped them over and wrote on the backs.  I had everyone trained to just look in the book for chores, shopping list, homeschool contacts, etc.  And guess what... it worked!  It worked really well, too!  At that time I had three high schoolers, one little'un in school, and then came the babies... February 2003, October 2004,  July 2006, and June 2009.  Throw in six wrestling seasons, Hubby's bout with cancer, rebellious teenagers and very little sleep.  Oh, and my health crashed. (Barely any progesterone and phase II adrenal fatigue.)  All I could do was survive.  Barely.

Anyway, I forgot all about that handy-dandy notebook organizer!  The Holy Spirit poked and prodded at me all summer to get an organizer.  I really didn't want to make one again, so I looked and looked and looked online for the "perfect" notebook to buy.  Several had a lot of what I needed but not ALL of what I needed, and they are expensive.  So guess what?  I made one after all!  I need full-size pages (I am less likely to lose it that way!)  I need a weekly planner with lots of writing space per day, a calender, a menu plan, and a shopping list.  I found just what I needed at Organized Home.  I went to Staples and bought dividers with built-in folders to store pages that don't have holes.  My other sections include: schedules (MicrosoftWord2007), cleaning schedules from Money Saving Mom, chore charts from Homeschooling at the Speed of Life, Bible, (just different ideas I find or notes), goals (ideas from Sarah Mae), old menu plans to refer back to, and a school section, with attendance charts, notes from homeschool conventions of the past, copies of CPI forms,  copy of supervising teacher contract, etc. The theme of this organizer is

"The wise woman builds her house, 

But the foolish pulls it down with her hands."

Proverbs 14:1 

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(This verse and picture is on the front cover of my notebook.)

Now that I have my organizer all organized (he-he) all I have to work on is, "eh-hem", #1 NOT letting it get buried on my desk*blush*, and #2  following it!  I honestly don't know which one is harder!  Really!!!  I have come to realize a little bit of rebellion in my heart when it comes to following a plan rather than being lazy.  (I am praying about a submissive spirit in this area!)

Through all the toil I also suffered with some depression.  I have a lot of back and neck pain and normally visit my chiropractor weekly.  But our insurance decided I go too much, I guess, because they have cut me off.  So every visit comes out of pocket now.  I have suffered more aches and pains than any 40-year-old should have!  Sometimes the pain was debilitating.  That's depressing.  We made our first real estate investment and it made a huge impact on our finances up front. (We're pretty broke until we get the house ready for a renter.)  That's depressing.  I could hardly walk through my basement due to piled-up junk, misplaced toys, and construction supplies.  That was frustrating, and a tough task to attack while having a lot of hip pain, especially while going up & down stairs.

But God is good!  He is patient!  And He wants me to ask for His help- which is a good thing since I need so much of it!!

I also haven't blogged much because my computer was in the shop several times.  Mr. Fix-It did a clean up but couldn't find anything seriously wrong--- at first.  He ended up saving all our data, wiping out the computer and re-installing the programs.  When that didn't work, he told me that it is just time to get a new one.  (Not what you want to hear when you are flat broke.)  So I am still using it, and asking God to heal it.  So far its working!  But next time I drop off the face of the earth, that just might be WHY!

If anyone actually had the patience to read this entire article, thank you for your time and patience!  I know, Laurie, you are probably the only one, so, thank you!

Judy

Psalm 103:10-12

There a lot of things I regret in my life.


 Things I did that I shouldn't have done.


 Things I said that I shouldn't have said.


 Things I didn't do that I should have done.


 Things I should have said and didn't.


 Even a frown when I should have smiled, or laughed when I should have condemned.


 I am so thankful that "He (God) has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities." (verse 10) I deserve hell. That's all there is to it. I don't deserve forgiveness, or a second chance. "For as the heavens are high above the earth,So great is His mercy toward those Who fear Him. "As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed out transgressions from us." God's forgiveness is great. So great that He never even thinks of them again. Jeremiah 31:34 "...For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Now if only I could forget... and even more importantly, that others would.

 Judy 

 All Scripture taken from the New King James Version.

4th of July

We don't normally associate the 4th of July with something sad like a funeral.  But we spent July 3rd at the most patriotic funeral I have ever seen.  A man who was a veteran of WWII, though he never left state side, he trained hundreds of young Navy pilots to serve our country.  The whole Legion group was there.  Twenty-one gun salute.  Flags.  Taps.  The Navy officers saluted the casket before they folded the flag to give to Grandma.  All the flowers were red, white, and blue.


He married Dallas' Grandma... two months after Dallas' brother and sister-in-law married... two months before we were married.  {How many people can say they got married the same year as their grandparents?!}  Grandma had been a widow for 20 years.  Now after nearly 17 years, she is widowed again.  They were very in love.  They were full-time companions.  They were so good to each other.  Now Grandma Alice is alone again.  

"Grandpa" John Ole Evans

September 9, 1920 - June29, 2012

Today we rest before our church 4th of July celebration.

Delicious Iced Coffee

There is just nothing like a nice cold glass of iced coffee on a hot summer day!  It is so cool and refreshing.  With the help of a friend, I have developed a delicious recipe so I can enjoy it any time, and at minimal cost, too.

In the blender add:

Some ice {maybe 4-5 cubes}
1 cup water
1 cup milk {I use skim, then its a fat-free drink!}
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping tsp instant coffee
Blend until the ice is chopped and enjoy your iced coffee!

Linked up with MenuPlanMonday

Homemade {and healthy} Coffee Creamer

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I love coffee.

I love to smell it as soon as I can after crawling out of bed in the morning.

I love to hold that hot mug in my cold hands and warm up in the wintertime.

I love it iced in the summertime.

I love coffee creamer.  


I love lots of different kinds of coffee creamer, but vanilla is my all-time favorite.  Hubby doesn't like me to buy the pre-made coffee creamers because one of the ingredients is "hydrogenated" somethingorwhatever.  {Hydrogenated anything is "not healthy".}  So for a while I was using coffee syrup with half & half.  "Yummy!" but I decided it was an unnecessary expense, so I thought I would try and invent my own vanilla coffee creamer:

1 quart carton of Half & Half
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsps. vanilla flavoring
Shake well,
Enjoy!

We've adopted!

It has been almost a year since we lost our dear old Molly.  I think about her often.  I don't think we ever really realized what a big part of the family was until she was gone.  Sometimes I think I hear her, breathing heavily as she did in her senior years; or stepping onto the front porch. {She sounded like a person because she weighed as much as a small adult human!}  I was never afraid of intruders - she never would have allowed one!  Her bark was definitely worse than her bite.  She was very cautious about men.  Grown men would refuse to leave their trucks when she stuck her nose up toward the driver's window.  She hated the garbage man.  Think about it, 1) a man 2) stopping by our house during the day when her kids were playing right there in the yard 3) taking away something that "belonged" to us!  I have to laugh when I remember his face!

One sunny morning when I was having my morning prayer time... something triggered a memory.  I don't remember what it was, but I shed a little tear, thinking about Molly.  So I prayed... "Lord, You know we want another dog.  You know we have tried to get a puppy and it just never worked out.  I ask You to bring us the right dog at the right time... and with a shock collar... all for free."  Looking back, part of me believed it was just too much to ask.  But not too much for our God!

A week or so later, Tyler came home from work and asked what we would think of taking in a 1-year old American bulldog.  {Ummm, a bulldog?  I was thinking more like German Shepherd.}  His friend at work had her as a house dog and couldn't keep her any longer.  She had outgrown the house and was bored there.  She was chewing up everything in sight!  He couldn't keep her in the backyard because she could jump the fence!  We agreed to adopt her.

Meet Lucy!

{Shock caller and everything!}

She came to us on Memorial Day!  She is sooo sweet, and loves the country.  She hasn't destroyed anything since she's been here, she is having too much fun following all these kids around!  She has had to adjust to not being allowed in the house, that was tough at first, but she is learning.  She especially didn't like the day it rained off and on all day!

The cats aren't thrilled with her, but they have "put her in her place" a few times.  Today she killed a raccoon! That was funny to me since Molly {the brave dog that she was} was scared to death of raccoons! LOL

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Leah's birthday was Saturday.  She turned THREE!!  {Wow! Where does the time go?}  Two months before her birthday we started asking what she wanted for her birthday.  And do you know what she said?  Get this... A Christmas tree!!  That's right, she never got over us taking the Christmas tree down in January!

So I told Jordyn.  I knew the garage saling queen would come through for us on this one!  Sure enough, someone a friend found a PURPLE CHRISTMAS TREE at a garage sale for $.25!  So Leah got just what she wanted for her birthday.  Jordyn decorated it with water balloon "Christmas balls" and a "Happy Birthday Leah" garland!  She loves it!!

A Mother's Worry

I have been reading through a book my mother gave me, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, By Joanna Weaver.  Its hard to read much with a house full of kids, but am trying to read a little each day since we are on our summer schedule.  It has been a real blessing.  Yesterday I was talking to someone who was telling me about how much she worries about her children and grandchildren.  I know how easy it is to get wrapped up into worrying about our loved ones! {Spiritual, emotional and physical concerns!}  The section I read in the book today directly addressed this exact topic! {Funny how that works!}

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

Here is an excerpt from chapter 3 under the section titled, "Worry versus concern":

"Concern:                                                    Worry:
* Involves a ligitimate threat                         * Is often unfounded
* Is specific (one thing)                                * Is generalized (spreads to many things)
* Addresses the problem                             * Obsesses about the problem
* Solves problems                                       * Creates more problems
*Looks to God for answer                           * Looks to self or other people for answers

"Pastor and teacher Gary E. Gilley sums up the difference like this: 'Worry is allowing problems and distress to come between us and the heart of God.  It is the view that God has somehow lost control of the situation and we cannot trust Him.  A legitimate concern presses us closer to the heart of God and causes us to lean and trust Him all the more.' {Gary E. Gilley, "think on These Things" newsletter 4, no. 2 (February 1998).}

"Concern draws us to God.  Worry pulls us from him.  I think this distinction is especially helpful for those of us who tend to spiritualize worry, convincing ourselves that it's our duty to fret about such things as the state of the world, our finances, or our futures.  Oswald Chambers put it this way in My Utmost for His Highest:

                   'Fussing always ends in sin.  We imagine that a little anxiety and worry
                   are an indication of how really wise we are; it is much more an indica-
                   tion of how really wicked we are.  Fretting springs from a determination
                   to get our own way.  Our Lord never worried and He was never anxious,
                   because He was not "out" to realize His own idea;  He was "out" to
                   realize God's ideas.  Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God....
                   All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.'
                   {Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (1935; reprint, Uhrichsville,
                    Ohio: Barbour, n.d.), 135}

"That's something we all need to remember when it comes to this issue of worry.  We face legitimate concerns every day of our lives.  But instead of fretting, instead of worrying, we need to focus on discerning what we can do (with God's help) and what should be left entirely up to God.  Even more important, we need to keep our focus on who God is and what God can do." {Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, by Joanna Weaver, Copyright 2002, Waterbrook Press, pages 38, 39}

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I am so guilty of worrying!  I mean, I have 8 children to worry about, a husband who is on the road for 60 hours each week, elderly parents who are prone to falling and forgetting important things, quite a number of unsaved relatives....  "What if robbers come in the night while Dallas is gone?  I don't even have a dog anymore to warn me!"  "What if I am not prepared for {fill in the blank!}"  "What if something happens to Dallas and I am left to take care of this family by myself?"  The list goes on, and on, and on.  The list could go on forever!  But I can't think about things like that, but rather, trust the Lord in all things!  Two of the most valuable verses I memorized as a child is Philippians 4:6-7  "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God;  and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."  I quote these verses to myself often, but not often enough!  I still worry!  This book is such an encouragement to me.  I would encourage every woman to read it!

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