Preparing for a Future Valentine

Monday night I got quite sick in a way I haven't in many years. For the past 5 years or so I have never gotten a strain of stomach flu that caused me to vomit. Before that, I hated to vomit, because it really just made me feel miserable, and I kinda had this irrational fear of dry heaving. Because of that every time I got sick, maybe twice a year, I would refuse to throw up. I would just merely wade through the nausea and get a lot of sleep. So this past Monday night while at play practice I realized that I was coming down with some kind of illness. I really hadn't been feeling well since we had left the house 2 hours before, but I had been desperately trying to fight it. Finally, at about 9 pm, I gave in and conceded that I was indeed ill, and thus called in sick for work the next day. Before we left practice, I somehow got into a discussion about being sick with a male friend of mine just a few months older than myself. I was telling this friend of mine about how when I

As it is Wednesday, we continue in our Pinterest series. Again, I will start with the original list of the amount of pins in my boards from greatest to least. Here is that list: Funny Stuff-168 Things to Try-63 Food-59 For the Home-54 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-37 Quotes-32 Wonderful-29 Done this-19 Articles-18 Books worth reading-11 Books to read in 2013-7 Favorite thing to do-6 Clothing-5 Wedding Ideas-5 Things for the future-3 Children's busy ideas-1 Homeschooling-1 But then I began to change both my focus, and what I spent my time on Pinterest doing. 5 weeks later my pins look like this: Funny Stuff-169 Things to Try-69 Food-73 For the Home-57 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-48 Quotes-32 Wonderful-31 Done this-27 Articles-42 Books worth reading-12 Books to read in 2013-23 Favorite thing to do-6 Clothing-5 Wedding Ideas-5 Things for the future-20 Children's busy ideas-16

As I surf through the internet, books, and other resources that talk on homeschooling, I am beginning to find a consistent pattern. Many people associate homeschooling with worksheets. Everywhere you go you find downloadable worksheets or printable papers. And for like every single topic.  Your child is learning to to add: worksheets with adding problems. Your child is learning the states of America, worksheets with the states names and capitals. Your child is learning about plants, worksheets where you match a leaf to the correct tree. Constant, constant worksheets. Homeschooling seems to be all about the content. Ways to know the content, ways to teach the content, ways to make sure your child memorized the content. Content is key. But is this biblical? Is this how Jesus, the Master Teacher, taught? Did He focus mainly on content, or was there more then that? If we take a look at Christ major sermons we see a much different story.In the Sermon on the Mount(Matt 5-7), Jesus does

Last week in this series I gave you a very brief overview of the three different types of men, and how they reflect the character of God in unique ways. Today I want to tell you more specifically about one of the three types, that is, the Command Man or King. This is a fun one. :) The Kings see life as if they were on a high mountain. They look at the big picture, much more than they look at individual or personal needs. They often show little tolerance for those around them who drag their feet, make excuses, whine a lot, etc.... They are never ambiguous. They are men who want to move forward now, and they have a plan how to do it. Kings are often chosen by other men to be military commanders, politicians, preachers, and heads of corporations. One of the men I admire most in life is a King. He knows what he wants, when he wants it, and how he wants it done. And he isn't afraid to tell you exactly what your part in his plan is. I can't remember the amount of times he would

I was at a friend's house Thursday afternoon, babysitting their youngest boy. Knowing the families schedule, this younger boy and I decided it would be helpful to make some kind of supper. In the past I had made homemade Mac and Cheese at their house, and they loved it, so that is what my young friend requested. So we pulled out the penne, the milk, and the butter, but then realized we were going to have to find some kind of cheese. Cheese at this home is kind of a given, as I don't think I can ever recall a time when there wasn't cheese in their fridge. But when I opened the cheese and meat drawer, all of their cheese was sliced for sandwiches. I really prefer to use shredded, so this presented a problem. Then in the back of the drawer, I found a block of Muenster! So this is the actual recipe. Ingredients: 1 stick of Butter 1 lb of Penne Pasta 1 block of Cream Cheese 4 oz of Muenster Cheese Milk Salt and Pepper 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter in

If you haven't read the rest of this series, fell free to go back and read previous posts starting with How Pinterest Convicted Me to do as I Preach #1 This is a continuation in a series of my adventures in revolutionizing my Pinterest motives and actions. Kind of out there, I know. But no one ever accused me of lacking in the area of radicalism. :) So when I started this a few weeks ago I listed my pinterest boards in order of greatest to least pins. Here is that list: Funny Stuff-168 Things to Try-63 Food-59 For the Home-54 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-37 Quotes-32 Wonderful-29 Done this-19 Articles-18 Books worth reading-11 Books to read in 2013-7 Favorite thing to do-6 Clothing-5 Wedding Ideas-5 Things for the future-3 Children's busy ideas-1 Homeschooling-1 Here is the current list: Funny Stuff-169 Things to Try-70 Food-68 For the Home-57 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-48 Quotes-

So what with work, church activities, play practice, and family outings, my hours spent working on things at home can seem pretty scarce. Thus, I love Mondays!!! My only outside obligation on Monday's is assistant directing play practice from 7-9 pm. So not only is it a day when Mom can have me do a couple tasks for her, but also a day I can get some things done that kind of fall to the wayside the rest of the week. So here is today in a nutshell. :) 6:40 am. Mom wakes me up 15 minutes before my alarm to help with three crying little girls. Chatty and Drama (if you don't know who Chatty and Drama are refer back to my earlier post  Many Hands make Light Work ) had gone to bed without diapers, and thus wet the entire bed, themselves, and any clothes in the near vicinity. Little Lou Who had also woken up, and was standing in her crib crying for attention. Little Linebacker was also fussing, as it was time for his first feeding of the day. 6:45 am. After Dad had filled the tu

So I have referenced a certain author in the past by the name of Debi Pearl. You can find some books by her and her husband in my Books I Recommend tab. In their books they talk about the idea that since men are created in God's image, they thus reflect the character of God in their personality. Interestingly enough just as God is a three-person entity, every men reflects one of the three entities of God. Either God, Jesus, or Holy Spirit. Now I know what you are thinking. You can't put men in one of three categories !; you are probably saying. But I disagree, and so do the Pearls, and those who have read their books and understood this theory. It made much more sense to me when I began to realize that these three categories reflect the character of God in some special way. Let's take a quick look at this idea, and then come back and join me on successive Sundays to hear more about this radical and truth-revealing way to understand your men and thus honor, respect, an

For the past few years, I have gotten into the habit of reading romance novels. Granted, 95% of them were Christian fiction, but still romance. It was addicting. When I ran out of books from one author, I would go to another. It was also very unhealthy for me, as it is very easy to compare the men in your life to the ones in the books, and of course they never match up. It was shortly before Christmas that I decided to make a radical change in my reading habits. I have not read a novel since December 21st. Since my previous average was about 2 or 3 novels a week, this is definitely a change. I have also read nothing with romance since that time. I do plan to go back to reading some novels at some point, but I don't intend to read any more romance. I actually found this idea on a blog where a mother made a list of 24 books, and she read them all that year; two a month. She did this in both 2011 and 2012. This inspired me to find 24 books of my own for the year of 2013. The list

Here is a very quick tutorial on how to turn the hot or cold water on a sink on or off. It was really quite funny how clueless I was on this subject a year ago. Last winter my brother was working on something with the sink in the kitchen. I don't remember what, but he needed to turn off the hot water. Clueless person that I was, I thought he was going to have to go downstairs and turn off the water heater or something. I thought that in order to turn off the hot water for a certain sink, you had to turn off the hot water in the entire house. Thus I was quite surprised when my brother, who is younger than me by the way, simply stuck his head under the sink and emerged a moment later. "What did you just do?" I asked. He looked at me kind of funny. "I turned off the hot water." "You mean you can turn off the hot water for a single sink?" My father saw this exchange, and the two started laughing at me. I was too excited, however, to care. "Show me

A few months ago I was reflecting on the idea that Scripture talks about how the overflow of our mouth comes from the heart. So I began to do some studying on this idea founded in scripture, and how I could learn to guard my heart and mind in order that the overflow of my mouth might be pleasing to others, and honoring to God. I wrote my thoughts and findings on this topic. So I'm going to share them below. The book of Luke talks about the fact that our thoughts and the things in our heart overflow in the way we act and speak. “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45). I had been taught this principle at a young age, and knew that my actions reflected my thoughts and heart. So I set out to find in scripture words that would help me to keep my thoughts in check in order that I might speak and act in a way that was ho

If you are new to the Pinterest series, you can read the first post here: How Pinterest convicted me to do as I preach #1 . And you can read last week's post here: How Pinterest convicted me to do as I preach #2 . At the beginning of this series I counted the pins on my boards, and wrote them down from greatest to least. Here is that list. Funny Stuff-168 Things to Try-63 Food-59 For the Home-54 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-37 Quotes-32 Wonderful-29 Done this-19 Articles-18 Books worth reading-11 Books to read in 2013-7 Favorite thing to do-6 Clothing-5 Wedding Ideas-5 Things for the future-3 Children's busy ideas-1 Homeschooling-1 And what the boards are today:  Funny Stuff-168 Things to Try-68 Food-63 For the Home-56 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-47 Quotes-32 Wonderful-30 Done this-23 Articles-34 Books worth reading-11 Books to read in 2013-16 Favorite thing to do-6 Clothing-5

During the church service this morning, we sang a song that was very relevant to certain circumstances in my current life. For the past few months I have been allowing myself to believe a lie that has caused me to follow consistent sin patterns. Every time that I would go to God confessing the sin patterns, He would try to unwrap that lie, but I was unwilling to look. Until recently. Just a few weeks ago, I allowed God to fully show me that lie, and the despicable ugliness it has caused in my life. At that point I made some pretty radical changes that essentially was a way of running and screaming in the opposite direction. The lie was that I needed something besides God to satisfy me. That God wasn't enough, and so I needed to look elsewhere to find that satisfaction. I often looked in very unhealthy and sinful places, and this was deteriorating my life. But God has been encouraging me with a specific peace of scripture lately, and I cling to this scripture when my flesh wants

So there are some things we eat often at our house, that others may never even heard of. Some of these recipes are ones we ate more often when I was little (before we went to a low-carb diet), and others are more recent. Shepherd's Pie. Ingredients: 5 lbs potatoes. 8 oz cheddar cheese 1 lb hamburger 2 cans (16 oz) Diced Tomatoes* 2 cans (16 oz) Green Beans* Bag of frozen corn* Butter and seasonings. *You can use any vegetables you like, just make sure they are soft. These veggies are just tho ones we used most often. Directions: 1. Peal, wash, and chop the potatoes. Throw them in water to boil. Add salt. 2. While potatoes are boiling, cook up the hamburger with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 3. Drain the potatoes when soft, and mash until smooth. Add butter for flavor. 4. Open and pour cans in with the hamburger. No need to drain the cans. Put hamburger and veggies into bottom of 9x13. 5. Spread potatoes as a second layer, scatter pats of butter ov

My post today is based on a chapter in a book I just finished. Can you tell I like books? ;)  Actually, I am very excited to relate that this is the second non-fiction book that I have finished in just over 3 weeks! I am usually really really bad at finishing non-fiction, and thus this is a big step for me, and one that I plan to continue. But moving on, the book this post is based on is titled: "Every Young Woman's Battle." It is coauthored by Stephen Arterburn, and Shannon Ethridge. This is a book I would highly recommend for any single women. As it is, I wanted to share something with my readers from the second to last chapter of this book. And that is the results of a survey taken of six Christian young men, on the top 10 things they look for or admire in women.The words inside parentheses are direct quotes from the book; comments on the guys top 10. Then the italics is a scripture I found to support each one. 1. She has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

A year ago I finished a book I had been given for Christmas with the title "Preparing to be a Helpmeet." Doesn't sound much different then my blog title, does it? The author of the book is Debi Pearl, a very radical and wise woman who bluntly states the biblical call to womanhood. Her more famous book is titled "Created to be His Helpmeet," which is exclusively for married women, but then she also wrote other books, including this different version of her original book directed towards single women. This book was exactly what I needed at the time. Debi talked in her very first chapter of an interesting experience she had at the age of 13. "Finally, Michael, the big brother, began to preach. I don't remember if it happened at the beginning of his message or in the middle or maybe even toward the end, but sometime while he was preaching the gospel, God spoke to me. "He's the one you will marry." "  Believe it or not, I had recentl

For those of you who are reading this series for the first time, refer back to the original post. How pinterest convicted me to do as I preach. #1  In that post, I gave a list of my pinterest boards in order of most to least. Here is that list: Funny Stuff-168 Things to Try-63 Food-59 For the Home-54 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-37 Quotes-32 Wonderful-29 Done this-19 Articles-18 Books worth reading-11 Books to read in 2013-7 Favorite thing to do-6 Clothing-5 Wedding Ideas-5 Things for the future-3 Children's busy ideas-1 Homeschooling-1 And here is the new list (not in great order): Funny Stuff-168 Things to Try-65 Food-62 For the Home-57 My Style-40 pins My someday book lover wedding-37 Wish List-37 Quotes-32 Wonderful-30 Articles-29 Done This-22 Books worth reading-11 Books to read in 2013-8 Favorite thing to do-6 Clothing-5 Wedding Ideas-5 Things for the future-8 Children's busy ideas-3 Homeschooling-3

I haven't talked to you much about my family, other then that it is quite big, and that I have siblings younger than me. But tonight I would love to tell you a fun story of how after meal chaos turned into a time to train and encourage many young children at once, and for that story you are going to need some background. So the characters for tonight's entertainment are as follows. Gorgeous Adolescent: Gorgeous is a 14 year old gal who looks and often acts way beyond her years. She is very good with babies, and is also quite efficient. At this point of time she has just finished a 6 hour work day at a nearby bookshop which included both brains and manual labor. Model Young Lady: Model is a tall slim gal of 10 with very long hair, an efficient manner of work, and a feisty spirit. Handsome and Stud: Handsome and Stud are 8 year old twins with LOTS of energy. Stud is very athletic, and Handsome is an intellect. Flirty Oldest: Flirty is a 6 year old who thins she is a oldest, a

Since last February, I have been on this quest to find what the bible has to say about a biblical woman. And because of that, it is very easy for me to see and notice when a woman is acting in an anti-biblical manner. That of course doesn't mean that I correct women or young ladies constantly, or even that I want to. I just realized recently in some encounters with my younger siblings, the effect of this. When my younger brother and sister collectively come to me with a relational complaint, it is an automatic response to see what my little sister is doing wrong, and to call her out on it. My mother pointed this out to me recently. She said this would be very detrimental when I was raising both sons and daughters, if I was constantly correcting my daughters, which is my natural inclination, and didn't correct my sons. She pointed out what effect this would have on my daughters. They would begin to think that 1, I cared and loved for my sons more than I did for them. 2, tha

I spoke in an earlier post about a woman named Crystal Paine. I just wanted to direct you to her blog. Money Saving Mom . Her blog is full of great deals, giveaways, helpful posts, great recipes, and more! Some of the giveaways from her blog I have used include ebooks, printouts, charts, and great deals at local stores such as Walgreens, or Dollar General. I have also been reading a few of her series of blogs on her website that I would love to recommend. Make the most of your mornings.   I have been reading through her challenge to make the most of the mornings. She covers a lot of areas, and has great insight on the best way to start your day on a good foot, and the preparation starts the night before. I have read at least the first 5 posts in this series, and it has made an INCREDIBLE change in my days and in my energy.  5 necessary traits of successful bloggers.   The necessary traits of a successful blogger is a series I have just started, and I have to admit already i