Home Notes

2011-11-26T10:37:00.001-08:00

I have been falling in love with pinterest and even though I don't know how it all works yet... want to invite you to follow mine and would love to follow yours:)
I just added on some beloved sisters (smiling your way, ladies) and seeing familiar faces made me realize I hadn't invited anyone yet!

Sandys Pinterest

I tried to figure out how to add this to my blog but with the new settings, I'm lost!

If you have a pinterest and would enjoy another follower, please comment here or email me at smile529@gmail.com and let me know!

Busy Moms "Get Real" Series, Part 2: Housework, Again?

2011-10-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

Busy Moms "Get Real" Series, Part 2: Housework, Again?

Blake & Bruce: Bedroom Rebuilding Part 2

2011-09-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.

Brother Lawrence

There were so many things I planned to write here!
Honestly, it does not seem I have stopped much (other than to sleep and shower) since Bruce and Kim left at the end of April.

I know I was going to share here how Bruce designed a new ceiling for our bedroom to make it much stronger and to help keep temperatures controlled. Blake has done so much work in our homes and in his business that he is very particular with the quality of work he does when he does manage to fit it in. I am sharing that because due to his standards coupled with his non stop working here and there and everywhere... he isn't the easiest man to work with!

Bruce made it happen! He pushed to get things done, explained his ideas and made himself available to work right alongside Blake. My husband LOVED the remodeling ideas and decided to (room by room, of course) re-do all of our ceilings with the same design.

We have to finish the light fixtures, put a floor down, get the scrap carpet out of the closet and we can move in!

Please pray for us to accomplish this --- it is a lot, lot, lot of work and right now, it is Blake and I to do it. He is working a full time job and still doing his business so it hasn't been quick to be finished.

*UPDATE* and praises!
Our sons wanted extra work and Blake has been so busy with the job and business that he has needed the help. . . SO. . . they completed the entire bedroom! The walls and ceiling were finished by Brandon (second to oldest who many of you prayed for when he was in Afghanistan) and Matthew (home from college and living at home until he gets married in March) and they painted them. Then, they started to lay the laminate flooring and Brandon finished when Matthew got a full time job. Brandon also got the floor molding cut, painted and put in and he has never done it before! He put in a new closet door and got all the trim painted. Blake put in REAL windows! We have never had those in this place and it is so, so nice! I keep opening them because I can and I have been so desperate for fresh air!
Blake made the window trim and my "old fashioned" window sills and installed a lovely light/ceiling fan, a spotlight to shine on a beautiful quilt Kim made for me while in Latvia and gave to me on her trip here and two other spotlights!
The quilt I just mentioned is the deciding color scheme on the whole room! I loved the play of colors and design so much that we based the paint colors and room style on it and I will base the curtains and bedding on it as soon as we can save up to get those.

The bathroom is now cleaned out and ready to have work started but we have no one to help right now so please pray over this. Only having one little bathroom for so many is difficult! The one joined to our bedroom is big and has a claw foot tub and used to be my place of relaxation and I want it back! The other tiny bathroom is falling apart now and literally... has room for the tub, the toilet and a small sink.

I am still singing praises to the LORD for the miracle of this room being done. There is still so much to do around here but we are working at it slowly and one day at a time.

Sorry for the blur. These are my new windows and between them and over the bed is where my quilt will hang. I will hope to have a bed covering by then and I will share more pictures.

I finally had a few minutes on the computer and thought I would finish this. I tried to change the fonts, style and design but just haven't figured all of that out. It is so foreign to me that after almost an hour ... I left things in whatever whacky place I'd put them and put it off for another day.

For the choir director; according to the Shoshannim. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love. My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Psalm 45:1

Blake & Bruce: Bedroom Rebuilding!

2011-06-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the blessing of heaven.

G. C. Lichtenberg

Some readers may remember me sharing about us needing a new roof. We have rebuilt almost every room in this humble home but there seems to always be another thing to fix. Thus the way of being a big family in the home we planned to be a two years that turned into over 17.

We have skylights in three rooms and they have been a constant problem since day one and my husband has tried to fix them countless times to no avail. We finally realized they must be taken out and new ceilings and such built in their place. The decision came too late because some heavy rains came in one day and our bathroom roof (right next to our bedroom) collapsed. Literally, we went in the room to see sky and this was the prettiest room in the house at the time. It was the first room we focused on the appearance and feel as much as the practical needs and it was to have been leading the way for the other rooms. I'm not saying the rest of the house had no mind paid to appearance because I strive for cozy, comfortable, clean and pleasing as much as I can but with little space... MORE attention to function is usually the call.
To shorten some of the wordiness of this, the first room we focused so much on with new pedestal sink, redone claw foot tub, 1928 styled new toilet, hand finished armoire and on it goes was in worse shape than all in one swoop.

My husband owns his own business and is a one man "crew" and the economy not only hit him but time is a huge issue. As a result, before he even got more than a tarp covering the roof over the bathroom, weather broke through and rain flooded through our bathroom and came pouring into the bedroom ruining floors that were only a few weeks down!

Things seemed to be falling apart around us. The heating and air conditioning (along with the duct work under the house) all went out and we put a small window unit in our bedroom. It leaked but you couldn't see it so water traveled between the walls and between the new flooring and the floor's foundation and there was extensive water damage by the time we figured it out. By this time, mold and mildew formed in the bathroom and on one part of the bedroom wall touching the bathroom.

That is when we lost not only a bathroom but a bedroom. We don't have a spare bedroom but we had a room my husband built on after it had been torn down and even though still in bad shape... better shape than the bedroom.

By the time it was said and done, our home leaked and then literally poured water when it rained. We had four rooms we had to put stock pots and eventually buckets out every single time it rained and the damage was extensive.

Somewhere along the way... I did something I had not done once in my entire life. I started losing hope and once that happened, it was like a vortex sucking me under. My home ... this place I had poured my heart into and loved serving from and opened any chance I could to hospitality and so, so much more was physically falling apart piece by piece and my hopes, dreams and plans were going down with it.
I saw little hope for help.
What do you do when you have no money to buy supplies if you stop working but no time to use the supplies if you are working all the time? We had no money for gas for me to start work somewhere and no clothes beyond typical stay at home casuals.
It not only all seemed impossible to fix... it reached a point of being impossible to fix by human hands.

Kim in Latvia was chatting with me and she started praying and encouraged me to remember the source of my provisions in every area. God spoke through her, dear ones. He lifted my head enough to heed her advice and drag myself back up and collapse in tears at His feet and at the altar of His Word.

I had to trust Him and be at peace and content in that trust no matter what things looked like in my spot on His world.
We started praying. I prayed. I read my Bible and Kim continued praying and time after time after time ... she urged me onward when despair tried to sap my strength.

Our three sons are all grown and on their own but we didn't let them know how much help we needed because they are all so busy trying to keep all the plates spinning in their own lives but they ended up telling us we needed to ask for help when we needed it. The problem was still getting it started so they had something to work on.

All of this to say that God answered from heaven and provided a job for my husband that paid for our entire roof. After years of that roof getting worse and worse and worse... we had a brand new, completely built and covered roof in 21 hours of work! The men who did it worked almost non stop until was finished!

We found out not long before this that Bruce and Kim were coming to the United States ... and HERE to our home!
In one of our talks in preparing for the time they would be here, Kim told me Bruce would like to help with the work on the house. I couldn't believe it. Work the one time in YEARS when they got to come home?! She insisted this is what he wanted to do and Blake (my husband) was ALL for it. He got to work clearing out mold and mildew, walls, ceilings, and putting real and brand new windows in my bathroom AND bedroom.
The miracles just started a landslide in my heart. I had prayed fervently for a roof even though by ALL appearances... it was humanly impossible with the money we didn't have, the time and so on. Far beyond the roof, I prayed for the Lord to provide real windows one day.

The first time it rained after the roof was replaced... I almost cried. I cannot tell you what it feels to this day to not have to worry over something ruining or imagine the damage being done by water pouring inside when it is raining outside.

This is getting long so I will break it up as I am doing the food and meals on the Nutmeg Notes blog!

The Law of Your Mother!

2011-02-23T08:19:00.001-08:00

The Law of Your Mother!

by James Smith, 1861

"Do not forsake the law of your mother!" Proverbs 1:8
A mother's influence is great; a mother's love is strong. Every mother therefore should endeavor to use her influence wisely, and for her child's eternal good. A very great responsibility rests upon godly mothers, which they should realize, and realizing--should act under a sense of it. The mother's life--should be the child's lesson; and the mother's words--should be the child's law. The authority of the mother--is essentially the authority of love; and the teachings of the mother--should be the teachings of love. With these thoughts in the mind, we want to enforce the inspired admonition to the young, for
The OBJECT to Be Regarded. A godly mother's law. O what a privilege to have a godly mother! One who knows . . .
the value of the soul,
the person of the Savior,
the way of salvation, and
the power of vital piety in her own heart.
Such a mother will teach her child . . .
to value what is really important and spiritual;
to secure a saving interest in eternal felicity;
to avoid the sinful and the dangerous;
to do the necessary and the moral;
to enjoy the lawful and the profitable;
to prepare for the future and eternal.
In a word, she will enforce on her child the advice of the Savior, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." The salvation of the child's soul--will be nearest her heart. The early and entire consecration of her child to God--will be the object at which she aims. For this she will teach, and pray and act. Nor will less than this, ever satisfy her maternal mind.
Every child should . . .
carefully attend to a mother's teaching,
treasure up a mother's lessons,
bear in mind the object of a mother's prayers,
and endeavor to carry out a mother's wishes.
Notice then,
The TEMPTATION to Be Resisted. When young people leave home, and enter into a place of business, or some school to learn a trade, or a profession--they find themselves surrounded by new circumstances. They often fall in with new companions, and are plied with new temptations.
Away from home, away from under a mother's eye, out of the reach of the sound of a mother's voice--they are apt to forget the law of their mother. They once thought that they never would, never could--but they do!
Not only so, they are tempted to forsake a mother's law, and adopt a new and untried rule of life, perhaps the very opposite to that which their mother gave them.
Then they begin to pursue a different course, and a downward course too. This is smooth and easy at first. The flesh is pleased, youthful lusts are gratified, bad habits are contracted, and death, eternal death, is sought in the error of their ways! O how many young men, how many young women, have been ruined, by forsaking the law of their mother! Hence,
The ADMONITION, "Do not forsake the law of your mother."
Think of a mother's love--so strong, so tender, and so constant.
Think of a mother's wisdom--implanted in her heart, by your mother's God.
Think of a mother's concern for her child--how deep, how lively, how uninterrupted.
A child may forget its mother--but the mother will never forget her child. The child's interest in its mother may die out--but the mother's interest in her child never will.
A mother's love--is an undying love.
A mother's wisdom--is quick and inventive.
A mother's concern for her offspring--is as lasting as her life.
Think of meeting your mother before God in judgment! Then her lessons will all be revived in your memory--then her prayers and tears will come up before you anew. Then she will rejoice in your salvation--OR acquiesce in the sentence of the just judge, when he bids you to depart from him into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels! Yes, your mother will acquiesce in what is just, even in the eternal condemnation of her child--as a hardened, persevering rebel against God!
O how solemn the thought--a mother obliged to agree to the banishment of her child from God and eternal glory--unto eternal Hell! Think of having the image of your mother--a holy mother, a glorified mother--stamped upon your memory forever in Hell. Think of hearing that tender, touching voice--warning, entreating, and beseeching you to flee to Jesus--stamped upon your mind forever in Hell. Think of having the law of your mother, and the efforts of your mother to save you--ever before you, when all hope is gone, and every way of escape is barred, and barred forever!
Think of how you may now add to her joy, by deciding for God; OR increase her sorrow, by going on still in your trespasses.
Young man, young woman, by all the tenderness of a mother's love, by the intense concern of a mother's heart--if you would not shorten the days of her life, or embitter her dying hours, I beseech you, "Do not forsake the law of your mother!"
By the dread thought of meeting your mother as a witness against you at the final judgment, and hearing her testify her approval of the sentence of condemnation, pronounced on you, by the Savior you have insulted and rejected--I beseech you, "Do not forsake the law of your mother!"
By the horrid thought of being . . .
haunted by the remembrance of your mother's form,
tormented by the remembrance of your mother's prayers,
and pierced through and through with the recollection of your mother's tears--in Hell forever; I beseech you, "Do not forsake the law of your mother!"
As you may greatly add to your mother's joys, OR increase your mother's sorrows; by all the love of a child, by the duty of a child--I beg you, "Do not forsake the law of your mother!"
Few realize the value of a mother as they should, while they have one--especially a godly mother. But when death has done its work in her, when her soul has departed, to look at a mother's corpse, to follow the coffin that contains a mother's remains, or to stand by a mother's grave--will awaken strange thoughts, new feelings, and perhaps bitter regrets. While you have a mother--love her, obey her, and make her heart glad.
Many forget and forsake the law of their mother, when away from her. This is unwise, it is unkind, it is ungrateful. A mother's advice . . .
is unselfish;
it is only for her child's good,
it is the offspring of the deepest love, and
often the result of the most earnest fervent prayers.
But fascinated by our companions,
deceived by an unbelieving heart,
allured by a false and vain world, and
ensnared by a cruel and crafty devil
--too many of our young people forsake the law of their mother! Many will wish--but wish in vain, that they never had such a mother!
It will increase their condemnation,
it will add to their torments, and
will give intensity to the bitter pangs generated by hopeless despair!
The thoughts of what their mother was, what their mother did, and how their mother tried to prevent their ruin--will make Hell ten times hotter than it would otherwise be--to many a child of godly parents.
But on the other hand, many will bless God forever for . . .
a mother's love,
a mother's example,
and a mother's law.
That love--won the heart for Jesus;
that example--was a constant lesson of warning, reproof and instruction;
and that law--constrained the soul to bow to the scepter of Jesus, and trust alone in his blessed name.
Young friends, endeavor to realize the value of a godly mother, while you have one! Never, never, let anyone, or anything tempt you to forsake her law--lest in Hell you should bitterly and eternally regret it! But let a mother's love, a mother's example, and a mother's law lead you at once to Jesus--that you may meet your mother with joy at last, and dwell with her in Heaven forever!

Have I Not Commanded Thee?

2010-12-20T06:00:00.001-08:00

My quiet time from one morning turned into the next morning and I wanted to share a second part.
Joshua 1:9 says:

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Matthew Henry's commentary had this to say and it really reached me in my own life.
Read this with your role as a homemaker in mind and all it entails... the roles, purpose, duties, and more.

Joshua was humble and low in his own eyes, not distrustful of God, and his power, and promise, but diffident of himself, and of his own wisdom, and strength, and sufficiency for the work, especially coming after so great a man as Moses;

and therefore God repeats this so often, “Be strong and of a good courage; let not the sense of thy own infirmities dishearten thee;

God is all-sufficient. Have not I commanded thee?”

[1.] “I have commanded the work to be done, and therefore it shall be done, how invincible soever the difficulties may seem that lie in the way.” Nay,

[2.] “I have commanded, called, and commissioned, thee to do it, and therefore will be sure to own thee, and strengthen thee, and bear thee out in. it.”

Note, When we are in the way of our duty we have reason to be strong and very courageous; and it will help very much to animate and embolden us if we keep our eye upon the divine warrant, hear God saying,

“Have not I commanded thee? I will therefore help thee, succeed thee, accept thee, reward thee.” Our Lord Jesus, as Joshua here, was borne up under his sufferings by a regard to the will of God and the commandment he had received from his Father, Joh_10:18.

When God Commands. . .

2010-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Have we been called by God to be homemakers?

Have we been commanded to be keepers of our homes?

I believe so.

Each home has a calling and each homemaker has a command unto it in one form or another.

My Bible reading this morning was Joshua 1:1-24 and it encouraged me in my calling as a homemaker and in what I am experiencing in my life right now. It isn't an instant feel good moment but life isn't made up of those and especially not so when we grow up.

Things get hard. Sometimes, they seem so difficult that we do not want to continue another step in them or we feel overwhelmed, burdened excessively and more.

Still, we are called. We are commanded to carry on.

The thing to remember is ... that we are never, ever called to carry on in or with our own strength.

My 21 year old son is on a few day visit from his college four hours away.

We ended up in a conversation about a lot of things and one thing he said was... that all of his life he has seen me try to do too much and that he is seeing it now. His point was that we are supposed to look to God for all of our strength and not push ourselves to withstand the weight of whatever we are carrying.

Today's quiet time confirmed this.

When we feel like we cannot carry on another thing, give up and give in finding the way out, up, over or above . . . we are wiser. We were never meant to tackle even one of those things on our own.

We are not all sufficient no matter how mightily we try to be. Only God is all sufficient and we can handle what He places in our pathways when we are strong and of good courage. It doesn't come from us but comes from Him.

The ability and strength to carry on ... day after day and week after week and month after month is not something we have to make it through alone. Even if and when we feel alone in it all... He is ever and always with us and "those that go where God sends them shall have Him with them wherever they go and they need desire no more to make them easy and prosperous." Quote by Matthew Henry.

Joshua was humble and low in his own eyes, not distrustful of God, and his power, and promise, but diffident of himself, and of his own wisdom, and strength, and sufficiency for the work, especially coming after so great a man as Moses; and therefore God repeats this so often, “Be strong and of a good courage; let not the sense of thy own infirmities dishearten thee; God is all-sufficient. Have not I commanded thee?” [1.] “I have commanded the work to be done, and therefore it shall be done, how invincible so ever the difficulties may seem that lie in the way.” Nay, [2.] “I have commanded, called, and commissioned, thee to do it, and therefore will be sure to own thee, and strengthen thee, and bear thee out in. it.” Note, When we are in the way of our duty we have reason to be strong and very courageous; and it will help very much to animate and embolden us if we keep our eye upon the divine warrant, hear God saying, “Have not I commanded thee? I will therefore help thee, succeed thee, accept thee, reward thee.” Our Lord Jesus, as Joshua here, was borne up under his sufferings by a regard to the will of God and the commandment he had received from his Father, Joh_10:18.

Matthew Henry Commentary on Joshua 1:1-24

If you are weary or your path seems scattered with more obstacles than level ground... the One who called you to this very place goes before you to clear the way and He is with you. One day, the forest will not be so thick and dark and stormy and you will be able to see the marvelous light of His rewards. Here on earth and in heaven.

Twelve Crafts Till Christmas

2010-12-15T05:15:00.000-08:00

I am highlighting blogs, books and so on as I shared either here or somewhere else lately (yes, it is one of those times) and today's is a delight all the way around ;)

I have had a lot of fun seeing the many creative ideas from this blogger who wanted to do a craft per month by Christmas of this year! Lots of step by step directions and more. I love it.

Even in HOMEMAKING. . . GOD is enough.

2010-09-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

I was telling a dear blessing today that I have the hardest times with balance some days. Some weeks. Some months. As a matter of fact, I have such a time that the days turn into weeks and lapse into months before I usually even know it.

So many women are just SO much more awesome than me! I see and hear from and read about women every single day who keep themselves beautiful, make time for reading, lead Bible studies, take kids to all kinds of activities, bake unbelievable cupcakes and cake balls and marzipan delights by the dozen.

There are women who have cozy and clean homes so well ordered and run that it is like the auto pilot Flylady often speaks of when explaining the goodness of routines.
Some women do all of the above without batting a lash and on top of them run 5-10 miles a day and volunteer at charity events and actively particpate in schools their children attend.

Anyone who knows me or reads what I write knows I'm not one of those women.
The good Lord in heaven knows I've tried to be. I've tried to the point of tears, pain and feelings of failure for never even coming close. You know what?

That isn't where my efforts have to be to find true success.
It isn't wrong for me to not be as organized or talented as just about every woman out there and I should not spend my life feeling guilty for not being.

I like a clean house. I actually love a clean house. I am a better, calmer and kinder person when things are just so and I feel brand new when they are. Right now... it is that way when I sweep a corner of time clean enough for it. My home doesn't stay in a state of clean and coziness. Sometimes those two co-exist and sometimes . . . they don't. My husband always says that one day everything will be that clean all the time . . . and we'll wish it back to now. Now when we have an active boy keeping us from sitting down very often, teen girls gathering in our kitchen and baking up all kinds of movie snacks and grown children bringing grandchildren to shake smiles, laughter and goodness all over the place

The thing is --- I do laundry and dishes every day. I sweep, clean after meals, tidy the bathroom, make beds, and do something with paper work every day. Some days I get music turned on and windows flung open (well, around here, kind of forced open with all my might) and all kinds of polishing and scrubbing and scenting goes on. Other times? I have to push laundry baskets back from the door to let people into our entry/pantry/laundry room.

Often I have extra things on my counter or work table and the clothes for family members to put up are left folded on the dryer.
There are lots of things but I know I usually do the best I can. I seek God each and every day and pray for His help. I read my Bible and pray and love the people in my life and anywhere near it with all I've got.
God is enough. My efforts in His name are enough.

I stack so much on my many to do lists that it often takes me a long, long time to reply to emails (but by the grace of God, I do reply!) and I have planned to write this post since a few months ago. Two posts have come since then by Melissa at Contemplative Joy and they really spoke to my heart. I think the words she shared here in July and here in August are shared thoughts with women all over the world. . . every day.

Around here yesterday . . .

2010-07-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

Yet again, I have no computer but I can thankfully use my husband's laptop!
Lots of work is going on around here and I need to *work* to make some time for relaxing before the hurried life of school starts back.

Yesterday, I got an early start in the garden and wished I hadn't let so many days slide without going out there. My husband does the nightly watering unless he isn't home and he gathers the new day's harvest each morning. I hand weed little areas at a time, every so often help check for produce ready to be picked and make sure everything we bring in gets eaten, preserved, processed and/or stored properly.

I was concerned about my basil plants (sweet and cinnamon) bec they have done SO well but are the ONLY things surviving from the area I planted them in. It is here, in front of my writing window and has formerly been an herb garden, a flower garden and a place for miniature roses. Now? It seems to be doomed for any healthy plant growth! Well, the confederate rose thrives here .... bigger than any we've ever seen every single year. . . the heirloom roses do just as well. Morning glories are fine but doing even better on the other side of the porch and the basil are making it. The parsley, cilantro, wild flower seeds, cucumbers, dill, and whatever else I planted here are all gone or almost gone. I got all the weeds away from my basil and will plan to mulch it in the next few days.

My jasmine is getting surrounded and almost covered by weeds! These are hard to pull so my husband has agreed to try the Roto-tiller around those, our green beans (can't even get to the beans!) and the edges of some of the other little gardens.

We surveyed each plant before having our morning coffee yesterday morning and there are things getting ready to bloom or blossom all over the yard!

Once back in, I made our coffee, took my thyroid medicine, did quiet time and started the laundry. I got about five loads done and should finish the other three up today!
It isn't backed up laundry --- we just have to wash sheets and blankets way more often than some bec I cannot stand pet hair on them and we have two indoor beagles and two indoor cat with a six month old cat I've been trying to keep OUTDOORS.

I washed and trimmed a HUGE bowl of radishes from our garden and cleaned our fridge! Took everything off the door shelves and took the door shelves out to soak in hot, soapy water while I went through all the bottles and smaller items to see what to keep and what to throw away.

When that was all done, I cleaned the rest of the fridge ...shelf by shelf. Got it all scrubbed and wiped down and all the drawers cleaned in the sink, dried and put back in their places. It was wonderful to SEE the produce drawers and to have everything organized again. I have a thing about refrigerators being neat and clean an d every time ours isn't... I dread getting it back that way. DEFINITELY not my favorite household chore!

My daughter helped cook yesterday (recipes and food journal at http://www.nutmegnotes08.blogspot.com/ ) and had dish duty all day along with helping to clean the counters, helping with laundry and a few other things. The youngest (seven years old who thinks he is at least 32) cleaned the cabinet fronts, made one of the beds, and cleaned the toilet inside and out.

I ended up with no computer for the better part of the day so I did some Bible studying and journaling and even took a short nap!
There is our little catch up for the time...smile.

Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, teh Son of the Father, in truth and love. 2 John 3

Homemade Tick Repellent and more

2010-07-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Thank you to a dear friend of mine via email who sent this to my inbox and I couldn't wait to share it with my readers! We have ticks BIG TIME where we live so I was excited to see these tips and this natural remedy for possibly warding them off.
While this isn't University-based research (that I know of) but this site for Morel hunters has a tip about Jewel weed and poison Ivy/Oak rashes. www.thegreatmorel.com go to FAQ and to the bottom of that page. Another site: for Jewel Weed is this one:

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/hydro/jewelwed.htm

What I know personally......When one of the professors, now retired took us on a walking tour of the Arboretum as part of our Tree Care Advisor Classes he mentioned that wherever you find Poison Ivy you will find its antidote...Jewel weed close by.

Lyme Disease is no fun. Protect yourself. Learn about it.

A good homemade recipe tick repellent for on your clothes and your pets follows (from the USDA forest service):

2 cups white vinegar

1 cup Avon skin so soft bath oil

1 cup water

1 tablespoon eucalyptus oil.

Put this mixture in an old spray bottle. No guarantees but it works for some with success.

Another suggestion gathered from The Great Morel's message board: "If you haven't been told yet and you live in an area with ticks like we do in Kentucky, put fabric softener sheets in each sock and a couple in your back pockets and you won't have the tick problem. Works like a charm. Happy hunting!" - Courtesy of Annie in Kentucky.

July 2, 2010 Garden Tidbits

2010-07-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

I did my FIRST canning (by myself) ever! Jars of bread & butter pickles are lined on my kitchen work table for 12-24 hours after processing. We are going to keep a jar or three and give the others as gifts to some special people in our lives... ones we have been waiting to bless!

Cucumbers are everywhere and we need to look closely in order to not miss them and end up with dino sized harvest! Lots of pickles, relishes and more planned. Zucchini is the only other food we've brought in but a lot is getting ready to arrive by the looks at the plants.

I have been severely slacking on hand weeding and it sadly shows in a lot of places. Our green beans, basils, and kids gardens still have no mulch and the weeds are getting bad. I am scribbling it down on my to do list to hand weed a few minutes every single morning.

I am having a time gathering, editing, and finding a way to record all the pictures to keep recording our progress so I am considering doing the garden scrapbook/sketchbook/notebook/journal I started last year.

Here are the latest photos:

Home Garden Notes June 2010

2010-06-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

*CORRECTION: Even though I KNOW how to spell zucchini and never even need spell check for it --- I spelled it wrong in my personal journal --- the one I decided to save time with and share as it was written there, here. I don't think I can go through and edit the text on these photos so I'm sending anyway. Each and every one has zucchini spelled zuchinni! Only me! *

I have not kept up with photos or journaling as I hoped and planned. Hoping to do better from here on out!

We have been getting cucumbers, zucchini, one radish I’m not sure was ready and some green beans and sweet basil!

The sweet basil and cinnamon basil are both doing well even though the confederate rose is over shadowing them. Hopefully, they will thrive --- I really want to do a lot with them.

My roses have all four completely stopped blooming so I need to see why and give them more attention. I would like to use the rose petals.

I’m working on getting the kitchen fully cleaned again and sanitized for dehydrating, canning, freezing and preparing the harvest. We already have a lot of cucumbers so I am pickling those.

We had to find the boiling canner Blake put outside, get the rust off of the rack (Walmart didn’t have one to buy) … get some spices and canning supplies. Now, I have to get busy doing my first canning session alone and make sure nothing is wasted.

We’ve been snacking on cucumbers and adding slices to sandwiches, as sides on summer lunches, added to commercial pickle juice after the pickles are gone. Very good!
I stove top grilled (on cast iron grill) zucchini and added it to pasta with some parmesan shavings. We haven’t had a block of parmesan in SO long --- Blake surprised us with a wedge from the Whole Foods market!

Starting Summer

2010-06-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

The weather is heating up and keeping the kitchen cool is getting harder to do. It is becoming increasingly needful to bake early mornings or late evenings.

I've made a variety of dishes and planned to share each one but they are scattered and scribbled all over the place! Some were my own recipes, others were from allrecipes.com and still more were cut or torn from printed sources.

Off the top of my head, I can share with you that we've had a recipe I've shared many times in the past. It is Chocolate Peanut Butter Whacky Cake or something like that. I didn't print the whole title this time but that is close, if not it.
The first time I made it in awhile was when our grown kids came for a meal and shared fellowship. We also had it today!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whacky Cake

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
powder
2 cups white sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and white sugar.
2. To the sifted ingredients, add the 10 tablespoons butter or margarine, vinegar, and warm water. Mix thoroughly, but do not beat. Pour batter into ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove cake from oven, but keep it in the pan.
4. Cream together peanut butter, brown sugar, milk, and 1/4 cup butter or margarine. Spread icing onto cake. Place under broiler until brown and bubbly.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 6/8/2010

The dinner I mentioned above with our oldest son, his wife and our three oldest grandbabies along with our next to oldest son, his wife and our youngest grandbaby turned out very well. We had:

Poppyseed Chicken

Mashed Potatoes with gravy

Fried potato peels (our second to oldest son shared this idea and it was such a hit that the platter didn't make it all the way around to everyone!)

Big tossed salad

The cake I just shared a recipe for

Sweet, iced tea
Water
Hot coffee with the cake

For the Poppyseed Chicken, I just mixed a large can of cream of chicken soup with a medium tub of sour cream and added a few tablespoons of poppy seeds and some shredded chicken. This was poured in a baking dish and then crushed Ritz crackers were spread to cover and melted butter was drizzled over the crackers. It was baked until bubbly.
It is just a quick and bigger version of almost every Poppyseed chicken recipe you'll find!

We've also had Jim Dandy grits with cheddar cheese, butter, or sauteed Vidalia onions. Once night, we had grits and little mounds of shredded cheddar, diced green chilis and sour cream adorned the top. Very tasty!

I'll write more when I can keep my eyes open --- either early, early in the morning after my Bible reading or late, late at night when everyone finally settles down!

Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread

2010-05-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Five Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread

Me and bread . . .

Scattered Garden Notes

2010-05-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

May 6th, 2010
Yesterday, I looked out my window and the heirloom roses we’ve had for all these years (brought by Grandpa from their tree and propagated here) were covered in black dots and green inchworms. The leaves had almost all been completely eaten and the completely healthy, flourishing rose from the DAY before was half way gone. Today? It is almost entirely gone. Hundreds and hundreds of these inchworms are on the underside of almost every leaf.
I am creating a shelf for nothing but my gardening books, pamphlets, journals and more so I can grab things as I need them. I got a growing favorite (The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control edited by: Barbara W. Ellis and Fern Marshall Bradley) and found the problem after an unsuccessful internet search.

Caterpillars. Who would have thought tiny caterpillars could cause such extensive damage in a matter of HOURS.
We have the choice of treating this by manually destroying their nests or egg cases (haven’t inspected it closely enough to find these though!) OR spraying the leaves with BTK at the first sign of damage (too late?) OR as a last resort, applying pyrethrin spray.
Challenges:
1. I doubt as bad as the damage is on this plant and another just like it on the other side of the yard that removing the nests or egg cases is feasible. I haven’t seen either of these so maybe it would be easier if I knew what they looked like.
2. I had never even heard of BTK so I checked the book’s index and found out it is bacillus thuringiensis --- some sort of bacterial pest control and the first of it’s kind on the market. It sounds terrible because it produces crystal toxins that poison, paralyze, and kill various caterpillars. After further research online… it is supposed to be all natural and safe. It also said to use at first sign of damage but in two days time --- the damage was the entire plant!
3. I am concerned with how dangerous pyrethrin spray is and one of the rose bushes is on the corner of my organic herb garden. That would definitely change the organic part of things.
We’ll figure out something (hopefully) today!
We now have planted and growing well so far:
• Beets (well, these aren’t growing well yet --- the heavy rains washed them somewhere and only one survived and now I can’t find it.) Maybe they will show up somewhere.
• Radishes: Only a few seeds got planted and they too were washed away but I have more to plant. So these should have been in a different category but they are listed to help me keep myself on track with what we do have.
• Yellow squash: A few seeds were planted (all we had left from last year) and they are pushing their way to being seedlings. They are about 1 or 2 inches so far!
• Green bush beans. Doing excellent! They are several inches tall already!
• Cucumbers --- heading straight up! Each of the two areas they are planted in is doing very well.
• Morning glories are growing more by the day! They are each a few inches long.
• Watermelons are wild and wonderful. They are growing so well!
• Broccoli is planted but not sprouting yet.
• Zinnias have survived the kittens and being on the porch so far so I need to plant them today.
Coming to the garden as soon as we can get them planted:
• Radishes.
• Yellow squash.
• Onions.
• Zucchini.
• Tomatoes (cherry for snacks and salads, one for sandwiches, and another for dehydrating).
• Tomatoes (cherry for snacks and salads, one for sandwiches, and
• another for dehydrating).
• . Seeds to make a Sisters Garden like the Indians used to. I wanted
• to plant these last year but didn't have the right supplies but thanks to Kristen, I have instructions for one this year.
• . Radishes.
• . Cabbage.
• . Carrots.
• . Lettuce.
• . Onions.
• . Bell peppers.
• . Kids seed kits for the five little plots for our little ones. These
• kits are just gathered extras from Bountiful Gardens and don't contain any medicinal herbs or poisonous plants. How cute is that? There is now a tiny plot for Braxton (our 7 year old) and our grandlittles each have one: Emily (4), Caden (2), Hailey (9 months) and Elijah (almost 3 months). Needless to say, some of those will require a teeny bit of help from others!

Garden Update

2010-04-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

Roses that come back year after year. One small plant was given to us by my sister and they have grown very big. We just cut them back as needed.

The camera isn't showing the detail of the soil or the defined rows because the Christmas Eve kittens are now amazing trapeze artists. They knocked our camera from a high shelf on the China Hutch to the floor and it isn't working well anymore:(
Anyway, these rows are the parsley (two kinds) and two basils.

Confederate rose plants shooting back up. Above those is our cilantro row and to the left are the wildflower seeds.

My husband creating BEAUTIFUL soil that cannot be seen. In the picture, it just looks like mud! This is our vegetable garden and is in the front of the house while the herb garden is to the side... kind of. Two hard to explain for now!

Our summer baby! This thing works even our toughest land into soft soil!

Our ragged little yard and garden are coming along!
We need to keep working and not give up.

The tiller was in the shop and we got it back today. SO NICE to have neatly plowed and tilled rows to plant in.

My husband separated what once was my herb garden (freestyle --- I just added herb plants as I got them) into neat sections for our seeds. I am so excited!

On the side closest to the porch, I planted a neat row of heavenly blue morning glories (as I wrote of recently --- and went all the way around the little porch) and there was a rectangle spot of soil with a wood beam on the outside as a border.
It has more shade than sun and I found a pack of lovely wild flower seeds I purchased last year to cover it with. They tolerate over watering if they must and this area is the most moist of the whole "plot".

In two, full sun rows, I planted one row of two different parsleys and a row of regular basil and a half row of cinnamon basil.

My confederate rose got cut all the way down (it becomes a MOUNTAIN each summer) has a whole new circle of little babies!

Next to that is a small patch of dill and the row above that is all of cilantro.

Much to do but we are on the way!

Juicer Talk

2010-04-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

Have wanted one of these for years and they STILL have great reviews!

I want green smoothies! Ha, Ha.

With all the gardening we are doing and the harvest we pray to bring in this summer --- we could afford to make a smoothie with fruits and vegetables every day.

The other juicer I have had on my wish list for years is the Green Star (I think that is the name --- will look it up when I have more time on here) and it is a hundred dollars more.

I haven't decided fully on juicing yet because I read that along with concentrated amounts of fruits and veggies (very good) ... you get concentrated sugars and pesticides unless you use all organic produce. Not in the income right now but maybe when we have some of our own!

Post It Note of Today... Now yesterday

2010-04-20T21:13:00.000-07:00

Very quick post:

Today, it rained. Glorious rain! Not enough to flood us or wash away our newly planted seeds but enough to water them. Smiles!

We stood on the porch and talked over ideas, hopes, plans and prayers for this place. What a mighty God we serve. With Him is our hope!

Lovely Blog

2010-04-19T18:32:00.001-07:00

Look at the lovely blog, Leslie Anne has made!

Testing!

2010-04-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

If this works... thank you SO much, darling ~ LESLIE ANNE!
If I did it right, clicking on the word "this" in the sentence above should take you to the Oreck post.
I'm checking it now. . .

Beginning Summer of 2009

2010-04-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Our "new" and natural yard & garden

2010-04-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

Over the 16+ years of living here and working on this yard, I have put in countless hours. Hour upon hour of clearing land, pulling weeds, claiming areas, unloading dirt, collecting mulch, planting flowers, herbs, and a few vegetables.

I have spent free money, gift money and more on new flowering bushes, roses, and bulbs. Eventually, no matter how cleaned, pruned up, and cared for it has been ... the weeds have taken over. Lawn mowers break routinely here and it takes a lot to keep our basic yard tools in good shape. Kind of makes me think of taking care of a jungle...

Anyway, I'm tossing the "giving up attitude" out with the pruned, dead parts of this yard. I have a renewed motivation to reclaim this little (and HUMBLE) piece of land and make the most of it.

It has helped to have my husband on board more than I thought it would.
He has been clearing areas, using his grandpa's old tractor to break up ground and has our garden plot in place. He started this last year and we planted some of the seeds I bought after spending hours and hours researching for the most natural choices.

Not a great deal of success to report from that. A long and boring story concludes with the fact that half my garden got dug up, the compost was abandoned and none of the beautiful and lovingly cared for seedlings survived.

This year... we are praying to be different.

As of today, we:

* Have a nice garden plot with wide rows and narrow footpaths like I wanted last year. We have planted a section of beets and started two flats of broccoli, zinnia's, and two squash varieties.

* Plowed a half circle that goes from the flower area under our vegetable garden and goes to the other side. We are going to plant flowers all in it and already a nice pack of wildflowers for this.

* Planted heavenly blue morning glories all the way around the porch and on both sides of the steps. The once brand new wood is now old, splintering and not so visually appealing. The morning glories get planted every summer and we tear the unsightly vines down when they start turning brown in fall after saving the seeds.

* Watered the peppermint we've had in two stone pots for so many years along with both heirloom roses, two other varieties of roses, the Southern Jasmine, blueberry bush and two azalea's.

* Moved the compost bin to a more convenient location and gone back to diligently adding coffee and tea grounds, egg shells, fruit and vegetable peelings, and more.

* Prepared an area in front of this window to fill with herbs like I did years ago. Right now, little blue/lavender flowers are sprinkled as a pretty ground cover.

I'm going to journal our progress and include pictures here and another place or two. I want it for us and since I'm always searching for things like this myself... thought some readers might appreciate sharing it as we go.

I'm pulling out all gardening books so it might be awhile before I post again... smile.

Oreck Halo

2010-04-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

My sister called this morning and during our conversation, told me about this new vacuum. How neat. I know there are tons of vacs out there doing all kinds of things these days and if I were rich, I think I'd try them all until I had an all time favorite --- or two. There is just something about being able to suck up dust, pet hair, dirt, bits of this and that and not having them float or flurry around the house!

Anyway, here is one I'd love to try one day!

The hyperlink will NOT work.
Let's try just typing it in...

http://www.oreck.com/upright-vacuum-cleaners/oreck_halo.cfm

Sorry you can't just click on it. I need to figure out enough about html to have clickable links but I know NOTHING about it.

We all need a push . . .

2010-03-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

We all need a push (Author Unknown)

The mother eagle gently covered her offspring toward the edge of the nest, her heart grieved with conflict and emotions as she felt their resistance to her persistent nudging.

She thought . . .

Why does the thrill of soaring, the freedom of flying, have to begin with the fear of falling, the fear of failure?

As in the tradition of her species her nest was located high on the shelf of a sheer, rock cliff thousands of feet above the canyon floor.
Below there was nothing but air to support the wings of her offspring.

She thought . . .

Is it possible that this time it will not work?
Despite her fears she knew the time had come – her parental mission was all but complete.
There remained only one final task –

The push.

The mother eagle drew courage from an innate wisdom . . .

Until her children discovered their wings, there would be no purpose for their lives.

Until they learned how to soar, they would fail to understand the privilege of being born an eagle.

The push . . .

The push was the greatest gift she had to offer, it was her supreme act of love.
So, one by one,

She pushed them from the security of the nest.

And, one by one,

She watched as they tumbled toward the canyon floor.

And one by one,

She watched . . .

As they flew.

The happiest homes

2010-03-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

Struggling with lack of contentment and a bit of weariness today but know I shouldn't be.

Eventually, my flesh that wants to scream or kick or something of an "anger-releasing" form will bow to the spirit, governed by the Lord. Peace will sweep the dirt of this attitude out the door and maybe the winds of joy will carry it away.

The happiest homes in the world

(J. R. Miller, "Counsel and Help" 1907)

Nothing is lovelier in life, than the spirit of contentment. Fretting mars the beauty of many a face. Discontent spoils all one's world. Out of whatever window he looks--the discontented person sees something that is not pleasing.

But a contented person sees only good everywhere. The happiest homes in the world are not those in which are the finest carpets, the costliest pictures, the most luxurious furniture--but those in which contented, joyful hearts dwell. A mind at peace, beautifies the plainest surroundings and even the hardest conditions.

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11-13

Spring Cleaning & Out of Hibernation!

2010-03-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

Clearing through the clutter is proving a boring job but we will figure a way to make it less tedious. Music helps!

The kids are outside playing and I can see them from my window and my daughter and I are cleaning the house. Laundry is getting done and warm weather means we will bring our weary clothes line back to life. I have searched in vain for brightly colored, plastic clothes pins because they are my favorite. I will settle with a big bag of wooden classics as soon as I can find those.

I'm glad all of our bedding can be freshly air dried above everything else --- they are longer to dry and I know they don't get fully aired out using an appliance. Blowing with the wind is a different story. The sun shines through stains and odors and just makes everything brighter.

How I'll miss our Abigail this summer. Our outdoor border collie mix of 12 years died a few weeks ago and I miss her now. I'll miss her more when I am outside without her. She followed me everywhere. . . to the clothesline, around the small garden plots and while I cleaned out the vehicles.

People shake their heads at how ridiculous it is to cry when we lose our pets but tears sting my eyes as I type.

We cleaned out the trash can today and added orange essential oil to the bottom. I will add a few drops to the laundry baskets, the washing machine and maybe drop one or two on a cloth for the dryer.

Something else I did and got compliments on how wonderful the house smelled was to open our kitchen window a bit and drop essential oils on the dry wood between panes. I added a couple of lemon, a couple of lavender and a couple of rosemary.

I added one down each sink drain and on the mop head when the floors got a good mop down. I do a bad thing to get the floors really clean and I don't suggest anyone try it but it works here. Our floors are very old and very worn and extremely hard to get super clean the way I love them to be.

I have started pouring hot, soapy water by the cup a few places and I grab the mop and old towels and do a quick clean over before pouring a few cups of clean water around to rinse. Then everything gets dried and the floor is clean. Disastrous for floors in need of particular care but quite handy for floors beyond much other help.

Have you noticed how eccentric I can be in my home cleaning? I want it to shine and sparkle, to glow and gleam and much more. Getting there is where it gets creative.

Well, I hope you have a humming and singing kind of spring cleaning this year --- whatever it looks like for your home!

3 Ideas to Consider:

1. Clear. Get ANYTHING you don't love, need or use OUT of your way so there is more space to easily clean.

2. Clean. Get the dust out, wipe up the sticky places, and scrub the scum away. Daily cleaning for the rest of the summer can be more "breezy" if you do.

3. Scent every room. Find a way to make things smell good. Open a window or all the windows. Spray something or add drops to awaken entire rooms. Have bowls of fruit out, harvest some herbs, snatch a hand full of flowers from your yard or places you won't be punished for it. Smile.

Spring is here and a home stretches from the winter cabin closeness and opens wide to all the sunshine offers. Help it along.

IMPORTANT

2009-09-29T05:11:00.001-07:00

It must be a new money venture for google/blogspot but I thought I'd let you know ---
the word "ideas" was not underlined in red by me and I didn't create the hyperlink. I noticed it wh en I posted just now and clicked on it to see why it was that way. It took me to a money making thing and I just wanted to let you know that I didn't do that.

Love,
Sandy

Important Note

2009-09-29T05:09:00.001-07:00

Dearest Readers,

I started writing Home Notes some time ago because homemaking is SUCH a passionate and purposeful part of my life. It is something I read stacks of books on (and always have) … go to first in magazines w hile waiting in grocery lines and talk about with others.

I love writing about it, too. I love sharing stories, tips, and gathering ideas from all over the world.
Even with all of this though, I haven’t been WRITING HOME NOTES as many have noticed.
My writing (by what I believe God has revealed to me over the years) is a gift from God to encourage, motivate, inspire and even strengthen the whole and the weary homemaker as she goes about being a keeper of her home.

Unless He pours it through, I don’t have it and I reached a point whenever it was where I could not write one word on the topic. Every time I go to. .. I either use the delete key or I start something entirely different. My home is as clean and cozy as I can seem to make it (with the exception of days when the messes and masses outnumber my energy level to keep up with) but it is in great disrepair and I find myself wanting to daydream things a different way when I write about them. If I’m dreaming of other circumstances, places, and settings --- I see no point in exposing you to the small offerings I’ve swept from the worn out places from the heart of my home.

I am not ending all homemaking writings (they are my favorite, after all) but just going to one blog and if/when the words come … I’ll share them there.

I’m keeping home notes up for those who repeatedly seek the archives but at this time, I won’t be sending new letters.

Still active sites:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NutmegNotes/

http://nutmegnotes08.blogspot.com

Love,
Sandy

Tuesday Morning

2009-08-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

A moment of respite. . .

I’m rewarding myself far more often than I should. When I clean for awhile, I find myself grabbing something to drink and heading to this monitor. Away the keys go clicking while I read emails, check out links, throw an update/status from my inbox and scatterings such as that. Smiles.

Housework has been sorting into our new school days and I love it! In the mornings, I read my Bible with some hot coffee and journal with whatever beloved pen I have handy. Laundry gets tossed in the washer while the coffee is making so I keep that moving until 1-3 loads are washed, dried, folded and put away. This should keep our laundry off the floor for a change! I have one hamper and baskets in the bedrooms but I put it on the floor to sort it and end up with it looking wretched until all is washed. Now, I have more time to focus and keep at it so it is coming along neatly and nicely. About time.

It is good to have certain chores for morning, afternoon and evening. The earlier part of the day is when I set to task on the main cleaning. The afternoon is a quick pick up and help from the kids and the evening is just a 10-20 minute pick up all over the house. Each person has a way, which works best for them and as long as some work is getting done… all in that regards is well!

My laundry is moving along today, the refrigerator is clean and looks so much better. I just used a soapy dish cloth and some hot water to wipe down the shelves, walls and the all on the inside. Most of the glass shelves and bins were taken out and washed thoroughly in hot, soapy water. Then, I rinsed well in very hot water and dried completely.

All the basics got done (making the bed, doing a quick clean on the toilet, gathering dirty laundry, sweeping, and such) so I just need to finish the things on today’s list.

I was blessed today and reminded of a time I was more thoughtful while I cleaned and worked about my home. While I was folding my husband’s worn blue jeans . . . I thought of how hard he works and how he keeps working no matter what things look like financially. I considered how strong he has to be to keep at it no matter what anyone says (sadly enough, at times even me… his own wife) and I prayed for him. I prayed for his work and just anything that came to mind to pray for him over. It was a gift for me by the time the load was done and I headed into our bedroom to put it all away.

Once there, I made our bed with sheets and pillow cases I washed this morning and whipped over our very, very worn quilt. It is a wedding ring quilt my mom gave us for Christmas (she bought it) many years ago. There is a large, black ink stain where our youngest son managed to leave a permanent marker open on. What I thought of as I neatened the corners and tucked the ends before folding down the top was my mother. I remembered her wrapping this and being so happy to give it to us and I was glad to still have it covering us at night… wrapping us continually in her love.

This is getting long so I’ll hurry on up  What about you? Are there feelings, memories, prayers, and/or thoughts you can reflect on while nurturing your home as only YOU can? Are there areas you need to clean out, shine up, or bring to blessed order?

I hope whatever your homemaking today holds. . . you are given the peace to appreciate the beauty and grace God so generously gives. Each and every job we do can be blessed by His hands… often through ours.

I’ll close with this lovely poem. Take from it what your heart will. I thought of the Lord and then my husband, children, and grandchildren when I read it.

Love,
Sandy

Avowal

Love is a shield to hold against the dark,
A fire to warm me, shelter from the night;
A lamp forever burning, and the spark,
The eternal spark that keeps the flame alight.
Love is the merchandise not bought or sold,
The gift, self-giving, counting not the price;
The deep – embedded vein of hidden gold
Refined in crucibles of sacrifice.
If I may have your love to keep beside me,
To hold inviolate, a precious thing,
If I may have its steady light to guide me,
If twill not matter what the years may bring,
Nor what the years may take beyond recall.
If I may have your love I shall have all.

Minnie Markham Kerr

The Power to Help or Overthrow

2009-08-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

Reading in my Bible this morning, a verse in the 25th chapter of 2 Chronicles stood out for my heart.

“Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.” [vs.8]

This spoke so much truth into my life and I believe there is truth for all of us in it.

Our 20 year old son (before he turned 20, smiles) was talking to me one day before he came home from college for the summer. We were discussing all the things his dad and I have tried to do in order to make our situation better (house falling apart, finances extremely tight, need for a return to routine/structure and on it goes) and he said:

“It isn’t what you are doing. There is NO way either of you can do MORE than you are already doing. You are literally doing everything you can. You just need to change some things around and look to God and let HIM help.”
Wise kid.

You see what I mean, though? We can fight courageously as the Scripture says… work harder… try more… and more on those never-ending lines. It is STILL up to GOD’S power to help us or overthrow.

If we are in line with His Word and following Him in all of our lives. . . I believe with all of my heart the Bible is clear that He’ll help us.
This doesn’t mean we’ll always have help the way we expect it but He is a Lord of HELP and has been from the start.

The Scriptures I read before verse 8 - shared that King Amaziah hired men from Israel to fight and had already paid them wages when he was warned to not use them.

But a man of God came to him and said, “Your Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the LORD is not with Israel --- not with any of the people of Ephraim.”
2 Chronicles 25:7

The king’s first reply was about the money he had already paid. He had already invested his money for these men to fight for him.

Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about the hundred talents I paid for the Israelite troops?”

The response was not to find a wise way to get some other work done for the money. It was actually this:

“The man of God replied, “The LORD can give you much more than that.” 2 Chronicles 25:9

No matter what we are doing. . . matter not what we have already done. . .
God has the POWER to help us and to make up for ANY lack we can possibly have in the process.

All we need to do is follow Him as we’ve read of and heard of and known for so long.
It is all about belief in HIM.
Belief above ourselves.
Belief above our circumstances.
Belief beyond what we see and to what we know in Christ.

I’ll close with some beautiful wisdom God’s Spirit seems to have poured through a man named Matthew Henry in the 1700’s:

He has ways enough to make up the loss to thee; it is below thee to speak of it.
Note, A firm belief of God's all-sufficiency to bear us out in our duty, and to make up all the loss and damage we sustain in his service abundantly to our advantage, will make his yoke very easy and his burden very light.

What is it to trust in God, but to be willing to venture the loss of any thing for him, in confidence of the goodness of the security he gives us that we shall not lose by him, but that whatever we part with for his sake shall be made up to us in kind or kindness.
When we grudge to part with any thing for God and our religion, this should satisfy us, that God is able to give us much more than this. He is just, and he is good, and he is solvent.
If men would but duly consider the inability of all those things to help them to which they have recourse when they forsake God, they would not be such enemies to themselves.
Those that will not persuaded to do well for their souls will justly be given up to their own counsels to do ill for themselves even in their outward affairs.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on parts of 2 Chronicles 25

Love,
Sandy

He'll Reveal

2009-08-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon:
He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.
Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.
Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:
That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. Daniel 14-23

Daniel wonders why such a harsh decree is made concerning the wise men. He and at least three of his friends (who knows how many of the other wise men they were friends with) were going to be murdered.

A king who ordered people cut into pieces and their homes turned in to rubble (some of the verses in Daniel 1 and 2) was quite capable of making this happen.

Daniel chose to speak responsibly and with good judgment to the commander of the King’s guard. He asked why the king was making such a rash and harsh order.

He listened to the answer . . . went to the king and asked for time to interpret the dream. Then, he went to his house and explained everything to Hanania, Mishael and Azariah (who the king had named Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego) and urged them to pray for God’s mercy and help concerning the mystery.

And said:

“Praise be to the name of God forever and ever;
Wisdom and power are His.
He changes times and seasons;
He deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
He reveals deep and hidden things;
He knows what lies in darkness,
And light dwells with him.
I thank and praise You, God of my ancestors;
You have given me wisdom and power,
You have made known to me what we asked of You,
You have made known to us the dream of the king. Daniel 2:20-23 TNIV

I really thought of how helpful this basic structure could be in the lives of many women of Christ.
A problem, fear, or trial comes up and instead of getting defensive, fretting, or right out losing it… we inquire about it reasonably.
Whether it is a person or a plot, we look into it to see what we are dealing with.

After this, we can go to our homes and our churches and tell our families and church family (or friends or relatives or whoever) what is going on and ask for prayer.

When all that is done. . . we praise our Father. We praise His very name and acknowledge His wisdom and His power.

It is HE Who changes our times. . . our seasons and He will shine His light through our darkness.

We thank Him and. . . see that He will make known to us what we ask of Him.

This is so powerful. We pray and pray and pray and pray for help. . . for hope. . . for clarity. . . for His will. . . for so many things and we need to know. For me, I suffer more not being able to figure out God’s will in a given situation more than the actual situation usually takes from me!
He will make known to us what we ask of Him.
He isn’t on our time schedule and doesn’t need to be so we can’t pin point a date, an hour or a minute He’ll reveal something. We can rest though, knowing HE will reveal it.

Are you stressed over finances and have no idea what to do about it?
Do you have something threatening your peace and/or your family’s well being?
Is there something you need God’s wisdom on?

He knows. He shows. He goes before you. Keep seeking Him first and most and He will show all you need to know.

Just thought I’d share that from my morning’s quiet timeJ
Love,
Sandy

Holy. Pure. Sanctified.

2009-08-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
1Th 4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
1Th 4:5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
1Th 4:6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
1Th 4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
1Th 4:8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

Whenever the body is, as it ought to be, devoted to God, and dedicated and set apart for him, it should be kept clean and pure for his service; and, as chastity is one branch of our sanctification, so this is one thing which God commands in his law, and what his grace effects in all true believers.

(2.) This will be greatly for our honour: so much is plainly implied, 1Th_4:4. Whereas the contrary will be a great dishonour. And his reproach shall not be wiped away, Pro_6:33. The body is here called the vessel of the soul, which dwells therein (so 1Sa_21:5), and it must be kept pure from defiling lusts. Every one should be careful in this matter, as he values his own honour and will not be contemptible on this account, that his inferior appetites and passions gain not the ascendant, tyrannizing over his reason and conscience, and enslaving the superior faculties of his soul. What can be more dishonourable than for a rational soul to be enslaved by bodily affections and brutal appetites?

The sin of uncleanness is contrary to the nature and design of our Christian calling: For God hath called us not unto uncleanness, but unto holiness, 1Th_4:7. The law of God forbids all impurity, and the gospel requires the greatest purity; it calls us from uncleanness unto holiness.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary

My morning Bible readings always feed me. These times comfort, guide, remind, restore, and urge me onward and I pray the same for each and every one. . . what a difference it makes.

Anyway, (smiles) today I read from a plan I’ve been using for several months and read two days worth. I missed some when I lost my Bible so I do more than one day at a time. I ended up in Chronicles and Thessalonians and here is something I had underlined before:

I Thessalonians 4:3-7. . . my Bible titled this section: “Directions for Growth” and I can see why.

We are literally surrounded on all sides by things that threaten our purity. People joke about it all the time, I know but the Bible is clear on how bad it can really be.

We’ve seen it in our own lives and I have lost count of how many over the years who have shared from other lives. A lack of purity can lead to more than we allow ourselves to believe.

The truth is. . . it isn’t just about a look from the eyes, a thought from the mind, or harmless this or that. It is a heart issue and any of it springs from there and does not stop unless we stop it by the grace and power of Christ.
Is it THAT big of a deal? It can be.

Every affair, adulterous act, shattering of a family and on and on it goes… started with such things.

It can somewhat be compared to a tiny fire … a little bitty flame on a few leaves surrounded by a forest. And the tiny impure thought is like a bitty drop of gas.
When that little flame sparks a bit higher… the wise heart should stop it by smothering it immediately! How easily it is controlled before the gas drop hits or the second it does but that is NOT the case if it is allowed another minute or two. By then, the fire can catch leaves, debris, and trees so quickly --- an entire area of the world can be in flames and even fireman can’t reach it.
This is the case with impurity and a flippant attitude about it.

I’ve had it… probably most of us have at one point or another. It is the way of the naïve child though and not the mature Christian.

Lord, may we live holy, holy, holy! If the world laughs at this. . . let them. It laughed at our Savior and the very ground on which He stood was holy.
In His holy Name…

Flee from immorality.
None of us are perfect and temptations will come. They can either be stopped within seconds or they can run rampant from our souls. . . He allows us to choose. How much heart ache we’d save if we chose the will of God in this and all things.

I will close with that and a note for our home lives:

And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you;
So that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. I Thessalonians 4:11-12

May we allow our time to be so spent on leading quiet lives, attending to our business and working with our hands that there is only room for sanctified thoughts. . .
Love,
Sandy

Quiet Time Notes

2009-08-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

For the fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. John 1:16

My sister and I have discussed, lately . . . the abundant life of a Christian.
We have struggled financially and in some other ways and there are times it seems we are under a yoke of it. Pressed down under the weight and prayers for help have started sounding monotonous to our own ears.

Reading His Word each day is our guide through this. Place after place after place reveals His faithfulness and fullness. He gives us from Himself and we all receive. . . grace upon grace. When we focus on the grace He gives. . . the lack we “see” fades in comparison.

Psalm 145:14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

Picturing what the above verse says blesses without measure. Most of us have fallen … into sin, out of money, into great need, into despair, onto the pavement of one pain or another.

The Lord upholds each and every one of us each and every time. He reaches down and He raises up. . . ALL THOSE who are bowed down.

It doesn’t say what kind of bowed down we have to be. . . just that He raises us UP.
His ways are so different than the world’s ways. He is the King above all Kings but He takes the time to lift our hearts, our bodies, our spirits . . . from the dusty and dirty places in this world and He lovingly lifts them up. Not as the world . . . it only reaches out to help to get something in return. Not with our Father.

But they will become his slaves so that they may learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. 2 Chronicles 12:8

Whatever the battle or battles may be. . . we are not standing alone with no help.
There is one place to safely trust getting help from. When we have no strength, no ideas left, no plan to prepare and no hope to be found: we have a God to trust in.

Then Asa called to the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, there is no one besides Thee to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in Thee, and in Thy name have come against this multitude, O LORD, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee.” 2 Chronicles 14:11

It dawned on me throughout today’s Bible reading that truths I have learned before still hold true. Just like God never changes. . . His instructions to us don’t waver. We keep on keeping on and we walk and work in the Name of the Lord . . . and He Himself will reward us.

Be strong today, dear Sister. Do not lose courage. . . Your Lord holds you in the palm of His hand and He will be faithful in helping you.

“And nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress. “But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.” 2 Chronicles 15:6-7

Love,
Sandy

Morning by Morning

2009-08-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

My morning routine has been so scattered all summer long.
It didn’t bother me much when I first stopped rising early. A lot was going on (a LOT) and as a result . . . I wasn’t getting sleep at night. This made rising early almost non-existent and this changed everything about my early day activity.
Some things still took place. . . I have kept to drinking my coffee, starting the laundry and reading my Bible. After those… the days have hit with so much to do that I fall into bed dazed.
I crave order and routine and structure when things get this way. There are times when routines make me feel pressured to keep up or bored with the monotony of continually complying. Things like facing the dishwasher, sweeping the floors, taking out the trash, folding clothes and making meals again and again and again. . . together and with more added… they can make one feel tied down to them. There is a difference in tied down with and tied to though:
This morning, I got up earlier and my Bible reading had some verses that stood out to me on the subject. These verses held some sort of comfort in the rhythm they presented and made me look forward to the upcoming schedule changes.
Once again, I can enjoy having an early routine with some of the same things done day in and day out. Morning by morning. . .

And you shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the LORD daily; morning by morning you shall provide it.
Also you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah, and a third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour, a grain offering to the LORD continually by a perpetual ordinance.
Thus they shall provide the lamp, the grain offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering.
Ezekiel 46:13-15

Prayer for Clean & Cozy Homemakers

2009-07-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

Prayer for Clean & Cozy HomemakersJ

Dearest Lord and Father,

I bring each and every heart on this list to Your amazing throne.
Pour Your Word into our hearts, minds, and souls so we may drink and hydrate every part of us. Let this overflow into the people and places around us, with us, and sent to us each day.

Thy words were found and I ate them,
And Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Thy name, O LORD God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16

Help us. Feed us. Hydrate us. Comfort, console, encourage, edify, strengthen and uplift us as we do all those things in and to and by YOUR NAME.

Lord, You are the helper for our every need so I pray for our help in getting the laundry washed, dried, folded, hung and put away.
I pray for our laundry rooms to be neatened and pantry shelves brought to order. Help us plan our meals and prepare nutritious and hearty meals no matter what bounty we do or don't have.
Give us sharing spirits so we don't hesitate to share the food gracing our counters and tables to others.
Infuse us with a heart to work as unto You and give us what we need to get all the floors cleaned up, swept, and mopped.
Show us through bringing order to every area of our homes...
Guide us through needed house repairs and planned home projects...
Give strength to our hands and arms so our dishes can stay washed and neatly put up and our sinks can be sanitary.

Make our hearts happy ... not with the world's view of happiness but YOUR SPIRIT'S joy always and ever flowing regardless of what is going on. When we are tackling allergy inducing dusting chores... help us sing in spite of it.
Let us find joy in clearing our homes of clutter, giving and giving some more from our bounty and helping others as we help ourselves.
Allow us to vacuum up pet hair, sparkle our glass and windows, tidy up, clean toilets, scrub shower stalls, wipe down bathtubs, scrub the dirty places and bring beauty to the homes You have blessed us with.

The other things on our To Do list --- let them all be led and designed and determined by YOU and not our own understanding. Help us serve, visit, share, give, comfort, encourage and more just as our precious Savior did while on earth. Just as He does now. In HIS NAME, Amen.

Love,
Sandy

Martha's Hands & Mary Mind

2009-06-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Prayer

Lord of all pots and pans and
tins, since I've not time to be
A saint by doing lovely things,
or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the twilight, or
storming heaven's gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals
and washing up the plates.

Although I must have Martha's
hands, I have a Mary mind;
And when I black the boots and
shoes, Thy sandals, Lord, I
find;
I think of how Thou trod the
earth, each time I scrub the
floor;
Accept this meditation, Lord,
I haven't time for more.

Warm all the kitchen with Thy
love and light it with Thy
peace;
Forgive me all my worrying and
make all grumbling cease;
Thou who didst love to give men
food ---in room or by the sea ---
Accept this service that I do,
I do it unto Thee.

Author Unknown

Changed Thinking

2009-05-09T04:35:00.000-07:00

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18

We have a “kind of baby” beagle. She left that pretty puppy stage and hit the barely- make -it –through- without -crying one many dogs put their masters through at certain ages. The previous family needed a new home for her ASAP and what started out as me helping find a home, ended with my home being it.

Bella, named by our teenage daughter, walks early each morning. We are crate training her like we did the other two and she sleeps in her crate like a baby bed.

This morning, I walked her and let my eyes wander over and across my yard. Thoughts turned into silent questions and all lined up for a turn: when will I get the fence we need for our garden plot? How much longer will our worn out little porch hold up? How will we cut the grass with a broken lawn mower? Where will get mulch enough to save the plants I’ve prayed to keep alive through the years?

This thinking walk of mine turned into concerns and collided with worry. By that point, it wasn’t just the yard and I felt fretting coming on strong. I thought of each of our kids (from the youngest to the grown & grandkids) and of the needed house repairs and before I reached the house… my peace was gone. Dangling on a tick covered tree I passed or caught up in some of the briars I almost tripped in was the peace I walked outside with.

A verse I read the same morning came to mind on not looking at the things seen but those not seen.{top of post} Another verse tapped in…

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

The morning opened to this:

It wasn’t about what I could see or even what I could feel.

It should be about hope and assurance in a GOD proven faithful for our every need.

Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

How thankful I am for the Word of God! It lifts me out of my worldly defeats and into higher truths.

Just like a mountaintop, You lift me up. . .
Just like a desert stream, You fill my cup . . .

The Only Thing That’s Beautiful To Me: Rush of Fools

Family, Home, & Garden: Bible Verses

2009-05-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens, and eat their produce.
‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear son and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.

‘And seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for a welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

‘And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.’

Jeremiah 29:5-7 & 11-13

I really loved picturing the living out of these verses. Families --- building up and making homes, planting gardens, bringing the bounty in for meals and really, the whole scene.

This made me think of my own home and garden and I wonder how I’m doing at building it up?

So often, we easily tear down what we have worked hard to create in our homes.
At least, I find this happening here.

Things like: Having a complaining spirit, being or sounding negative, and that emotion most of us detest and still fall into. . . anger. It seems I go for months drawing on the peace provided in God’s Word as I read it each and every morning before reading anything else.

Then, one day … everything gets on my nerves. I end up being discontent, frazzled, and irritated. It is so hard to break such a mood when it sets in and I always hate the effect it has on my family. Every one seems down cast and the very rooms we laugh, love, and live in seem the same way.

Thankfully, those days do pass and a new day and new hope shines brightly again.
Those days are the building up and building on times and they help carry us through the tearing down times.

“Again, you shall plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria;

The planters shall plant and shall enjoy them.” Jeremiah 31:5

The LORD wants so much for his, doesn’t He?! He wants us to enjoy the homes and gardens we build and nurture.

Here in our home, it is a time of celebration. Our son is coming home after three years of mere leaves and visits. He left home to train in Fort Benning, GA and went from there to where he was stationed in Italy. He deployed from Italy for 15 months in Afghanistan and has been several months back in Italy since returning. God has been so good and He has carried this guy who left home a boy and is coming back a man.

How thankful I am for my LORD and Savior. HE alone carried this mother’s heart through the terrors, agonies, heart cries, and the heart breaks. He also built UP my faith and tore DOWN my fear. My God is an awesome God! Your God is an awesome God!

“And there is hope for your future,” declares the LORD, and your children shall return to their own territory.” Jeremiah 31:17

And for those “tear down” kind of days? We can dwell on His truth. The truth that HE satisfies and HE refreshes through all our days.

“For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes.” Jeremiah 31:25

Housekeeping in Heart and by Hand

2009-05-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

"When my anxious thoughts multiply within me,
Thy consolations delight my soul."
Psalm 94:19

I usually don't get over worried or preoccupied over flu scares, peace threats, and/or surivival situations. When they hit the news, I pray and trust God with being the ONE in control.

This latest flu fear crossing all over right now has nudged me off my secure stance a bit. Worldly thoughts came pressing on the doorway of my heart like storms beating the entry of a house.

What if?
My dad taught me long ago to not give in to those two words.

The Lord gave me a renewed peace as I've prayed for people, my family and others and heard the developing news. He is still in control.

Circumstances, situations, and/or rumors of them don't change the fact that our God is over all and everything.

He is our peace.

For me, this makes the whole world look brighter.

Around here, I am following many of the tips I've read taking some of the safety precautions. Beyond that, I don't have to feel panicked because we are in the hands of the Lord.

Steps to "Safer" Housekeeping

* Spray all doorknobs, light switches and knobs and wipe down. I used straight vinegar in a spray bottle with several drops of lavender shaken in. You can use alcohol, peroxide (more below) or a spray of tea tree oil and distilled water.

* Use peroxide on faucets, kitchen and bathroom sinks, counters, worktables, tubs nad toilets.

* Dissolve Borax in clean water and wipe down doorways, appliance handles, wipe down surfaces, and mop the floors.

* Adding tea tree oil, lavender, or eucalyptus oil in my laundry. I add a few to several drops as the machine is filling with water.

I'm sure there is lots more but these are some basics I am doing around here.

Another thing:
I already wash my hands so much I have to keep lotion around and now that I'm doing that even more, I need more. I've started rubbing a small piece of coconut oil on my hands and between my fingers. Instant softness!

Have a great day and coming weekend and I hope you are safe and feeling the peace of the Lord.

Start of Summer Mornings

2009-04-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

Some would not consider it summer yet basing things on temperature, school still being open, and/or the date on the calendar. Around here... I can tell it is the first days of our hottest and longest season.

I get up between 4:30am and 7:00am and the house is already less dark in the early mornings. By the time I have the coffee done, laundry moving, breakfast made, kitchen tidied, bathroom swished & swiped and floor vac'd --- the sun is bright and warm.

This is the first year I have looked this forward to a hot time of year since I was a child. It might be the garden we are growing, getting Blake in on my yard plans, or just getting some sunshine absorbed; I just know I have hope for a good one.

There is a bumblebee buzzing and bouncing (quite gracefully) all over our yellow bell bushes outside this window. Blue Jay's dive into one tree and cardinals swoop down from another. My purple azaleas are in full bloom and I wish my husband hadn't covered my gorgous white azaleas with big rocks! He did this when his parents' old house was torn down to build new and he lugged all kinds of rock down here to save and use.

I hope to get the floors mopped again today with some rosemary essential oil. I need to give it a good scrub again!

Just thought I'd slip a quickly "scratched" note from my home this developing day!

A Homemaking Praise

2009-02-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

{picture from allposters.com}

My laundry is caught up, Lord . . .
My laundry is caught up!
The piles are all washed, rinsed, dried and folded,
All are in drawers and in closets with care
Not a person was reminded so no one was scolded. . .
For leaving them in stacks here and there.
This time it all has been put away,
Each person took a basket
This made for a tidy day!
The dishes are done, Lord . . .
The dishes are done!
The bowls, cups and plates
line neatly in cupboards;
Each and every one.
The floors are swept up of debris,
The corners swept up, too. . .
Tomorrow I will mop them
And give more praise to YOU!
The house is tidy and all is neat,
candles twinkle tiny flickers of glowing heat.
Thank You for joy You provide
Around, about and all inside!

Sandy W. 2009

Planning & Preparing

2009-02-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

*What happened to our option at blogspot to choose a font and font size?*

There is a lot going on in our home each day.

For me, it seems home schooling one presses more at times than all four of the other children at once. We are doing lap books and ABeka for now because I was struggling for time to keep up with finding, printing, and scheduling learning materials.

I’m in awe of those of you who manage so much. I am spending time every day on business paperwork and then dragging through tax forms once a month so that takes some thinking and planning time.

We are starting a garden this year and it takes a lot more time in the planning stages than I ever realized! I’m working on an article all about it but we are moving forward a step at a time. I’m trying to set up for harvesting time NOW so we are prepared and don’t allow for waste.

Menu making and cooking from scratch, taking care of personal papers and keeping up with all around homemaking… this can take a lot of time. Smiles.

Today, my husband and I discussed some plans over coffee, I did some quick research online and answered a few emails, took care of a few necessary phone calls, got homeschooling finished, took care of lunch (homemade tortillas --- I am sharing that on http://www.nutmegnotes08.blogspot.com) and hand washed all the dishes. I got some laundry done and dealt with some discipline issues (to put it sweetly;) with our five year old.

It ended with him staying right by my side and being a part of what ever I was doing. This meant drying the dishes and putting them away as I hand washed. I let him put harder to reach things on a dry kitchen towel and I put those up. Next time, I’ll have him do this using his two- step stool from Mamaw’s house.
He also swept the floor and had some nice conversation with me and bolted the second his dad got home. He had been waiting all day for time at the rope swing they made together and they are going to the creek tonight. He couldn’t get his boots on fast enough!

The days on my planners (yes, I use two right now) fill almost every space but it is nice to stay busy. Good for us.

My goal is to keep up with my priorities and build my family and home up. If I am not careful with my time and wise with moments … I could easily be tearing it down. This verse has always spoken to me:

“The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish tears hers down.” Proverbs 14:1

Scrubbing Bubbles... One more post, I think

2009-02-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

Dearest Sandy,

First off, let me thank you for the lovely card you sent a couple of months ago. You really brightened my day when I opened it!

As I read about your Scrubbing Bubbles "miracle" I was reminded of a similar discovery by a friend of mine. She had read that it did the same with mini blinds. So she tried it, and it worked! All she did was take her mini blinds out to the yard, sprayed them with Scrubbing Bubbles (she tried the generic version but it didn't work--only the name brand did), and let them sit a few minutes (maybe 10 or 15 is all). Afterward, she sprayed them down with the garden hose (no, she didn't have to wipe them by hand at all), let them dry, and rehung them. They were spotless! Sure saved her a lot of hard work cleaning them! While they were drying it gave her a chance to thoroughly clean other areas of her home. She was glad of the extra time and energy she had since she didn't have to clean each mini blind by hand.

Just thought I'd pass this tidbit along. I've been meaning to post it on my blog, but once again, time is always a factor.

Please tell the dear ladies on CC&H I said hello!

Hugs,Cynthia Robin

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. ~Jude 21

Scrubbing Bubbles "Send In's"

2009-02-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hello!
I was given permission to share some of the responses to my excited sharing on what Scrubbing Bubbles did to kitchen grease. Here they are:

I just know I have used it every since we lived here and that has been almost 30 years. So we have used it for years . Just read the precautions for use....

1. allow to foam up about 10 minutes or so then wipe off with a warm wet cloth....

2. stay out of the fumes...spray and walk away...ie leave the room I do no more than 1/4 of a wall at a time...say...the upper two portions....on a ladder, then move to the lower portions.... so it takes about an hour to clean a wall allow it to dry for several hours, especially in this cold weather before painting....I have found that the outer walls don't allow paint to adhere as well when it is so cold outside.
But for spring, summer and fall painting....I clean all the walls and then can begin in on the painting.

Now, I caveat, I use a good quality paint...I use Latex enamel Bath and Kitchen paint in these high cleaning (scrubbable) areas and a good quality satin latex paint in all other areas. Results may not be the same depending on the paint. .. I have used brands from Home Depot, Sears and Martha Stewart and Gliddens paints.

I have used scrubbing bubbles to clean walls especially before I am going to paint with excellent results.
I spray it on, wipe it off and then follow with a cloth with warm warm....
It saves me time , effort and also...it is one of the few items I stock in our home...
I have a grandson with poor aim also!

Homemaking Month By Month

2009-02-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

January's homemaking chores poured into February and I'm working to keep these from rushing into March. Smiles...
Not really. I am actually finally ... fine... with taking things one day at a time. Even though I would prefer everything be done in one day, I know it isn't going to be so why make it a worrisome thing? Bringing this active, working, love-filled home into a beautiful sense of order and comfortable clean is worth a slow and steady job.

Progress has been stacking up one de-cluttered and organized area at a time. The cleaning is being maintained in the process and around here... with all going on so much of the time, this is a good achievement.

Our bedroom was the worst room in the house. I vacuumed the carpet, made my bed pretty regularly and randomly cleaned off dressers and computer desk. Beyond that, we had stacks of paperwork to go through in one corner, a basket of things to go through in another and just disorder to figure out everywhere.

When the pipes busted, we had to get up the carpet fast. What a blessing! We are now carpet free (something we've been working for years on) except for three small closets. My husband installed some laminate flooring and we ONLY put back in the bedroom these items:

Bed. Two dressers. Nightstand. Small antique table.
We planned to put more in there but have fallen SO in love with the serenity, the simplicity and the almost Shaker like cleanliness. We've decided we don't need anything else in there after all.

Now, it is following us through the house. How much do we need? How much can one house hold? Why are we holding all of it?

There are still more rooms to go and work to be done in our bedroom. The walls and ceiling have to be fixed and painted and I'd like to add a pretty rug or two and definitely am dreaming of a lovely lamp but we are getting somewhere.

I'll try to share pictures soon and if you have a room you have reclaimed or changed around and would like to share it --- please do!

To Anyone Who has ever LOVED a BOOK...

2009-01-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

Book Lovers DREAM Come True!

I love books and I read and read and read when I can force the time in for it. I have loved reading since childhood when my mother chose books and booksets for every gift giving occasion. Many times, I didn’t catch the gold in what she was doing and I wondered what her hang up with books was. Now I know. Now, my hang up with books is even greater than hers.

Over the years, much of the spare money, extra, gift money, gift cards and on it goes would greedily go for books. Bookstores, Christian gifts shops, thrift stores, antique malls, used book stores, yardsales and online shopping led me to more and more books.

Yes, you can have too many. I’ve tried extremely hard to be diligent over the years and have given boxes and boxes and boxes reluctantly away.

I tried one of the book programs supposedly just like Netflix is with movies but I was very much NOT impressed with the price involved.

Somehow, through a blog or something? I landed on the AWESOME SITE I’m sharing about now and it is amazingly FREE to join and participate in! IF you ship books out, you pay small shipping fees but you can “order” books yourself and pay none!

You send books out and get credits for them and you can get books sent to you in a matter of days. I have waited to share more on this until I saw if I liked it and the deal is : I LOVE IT!

IF YOU SIGN UP, PLEASE use me as a referral! My email name is

smile529@charter.net --- I’ve been sharing and sharing with people around me about this and didn’t know YOU get CREDITS for sharing with others! Very fun thing and there are so many cool features.

Just a few:
· Message boards. You can ask questions, read feedbacks, chat or whatever with other members all over.
· You get assigned someone to help you through as a new member and I’ve been helped instantly with my questions from the start. Amazing to get all this for free.
· You can add a facebook app and share the news that way and there are all kinds of website banners, email signatures, and more. I am freaking out over all of these.
· Everything is kept up for y ou. What books you send/sent, what books you receive. I recently found out you can email the person you are sending the book to and email the one sending you a book.
· The process is SO EASY! I am the world’s WORSE mail things out person. I really don’t know if anyone on this planet could come close to my wretched record. Things are changing… this place lets you PRINT the label straight from the website and you can wrap the book in it or slip it in a bubble envelope and tape the label there.

· There are several mailing options AND instruction sheets for wrapping paperbacks, hardcovers and more.

I cannot say enough about this wonderful deal. I do hope more and more will join the thousands of members already participating because the more of us there … the wider our book inventory and resources will be! My sister (THANK YOU, SISTA!) gave me a stack of books to start me off sending and three were asked for immediately. I now can browse for homemaking, cookbooks, Christian, fiction, drama, classics, biographies, college books, kids books, and just about any other book you can think of!

Please check it out if you get a few minutes!

Love,
Sandy

Kitchen Progress

2009-01-23T07:35:00.000-08:00

Kitchen Progress

[I love the picture here. Found it at art.com or allposters.com]

Today hasn’t been as productive. My glasses got broken and I was huddled around this computer screen making sure I could still read. I have an appointment on Monday to have my eyes checked and will PRAY to find affordable and wonderful glasses all in one piece.

I did get a problematic cupboard brought back to order. It is big and is on top of a small double wall oven. Once you open the doors, it has one shelf in the back and I keep our tea pitcher, glass storage containers, white Corningware (we’ve had it 15 or 20 years) set , a Spirulina (to make ribbons or zoodles out of vegetables) and Lauren’s lunch supplies. It was a big mess!

I didn’t get it cleared out, wiped down and buffed dry as I planned but I did neatly stack everything and it looks much better now.

I also wiped down the top and front of the stove …again… did several loads of laundry, wipe down the counters and work table, swept, and did all the dishes.
Another big thing on my to do list has been business paperwork and I spent a great deal of time on that today. Love having a handle on that because it can be out of hand so quickly! I really can’t wait until we save up for Quick Books software one day!

Yesterday, a lot of house work got done. The cookie sheet area was cleared, wiped down and everything put neatly back in. The counters, worktable, dishes, some of the appliances and some other things were done by Lauren and I.

Braxton put the blankets on the couch, picked up all the toys in the living room, picked up all the trash, swept the floor and vacuumed.

Lauren cleaned the bathroom.

It was so relaxing to watch a wonderful movie I just might buy:
The Christmas Cottage… I’ve told someone about it and wrote about twice now. I made a big cup of Earl Grey tea, stirred in a dripping spoon of local honey and swirled half-n-half in that.

Just keeping up with homemaking on here until I have more time to write more cozily . . .

Kitchen Help

2009-01-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

This picture shows things in mid progress. I have to finish hanging a few things (two rolling pins go above the pots and pans and some more things on the hooks) but I wanted to show how there are no grease stains!
I am not advanced in photography (I know, gasp for air and great shock) and I chose between this one and the version with a flash. It was TOO bright.

I have been working on my kitchen for days. Some I have spent HOURS scrubbing, organizing, stacking, de-cluttering and wiping clean. Others, I have forced myself through the daily basics and added a very relaxed couple of hours of work just to keep me going until I get it all done. And to think I used to do my entire HOME in one hour .

Anyway, today's kitchen work was trying to clean the grease and find the original paint, silver, and appliances. Ha Ha.

Seriously, I rarely fry ANYthing but I do cook a LOT and I guess the grease accumulates in some places worse than others.

I have used a dish cloth swished in hot, soapy water and wrung out. Couldn't even tell a difference. I tried a cleaner here and there and just coughed over the "fumes". tried wiping down with almost boiling water and barely could tell I even tried.

Today, I got the dishes done after lunch and the laundry has been done since this morning and decided to finish as much of the stainless steel cleaning as I could. I cleaned and polished the two stainless steel shelves on the wall and the ss work table using a stray (and old) can of Stainless Steel cleaner I got whenever ago from Sam's. I wish I had bought a case because my stainless steel hasn't been so gleamy since it was new!

It all looked so good that I started moving around the kitchen and tackling walls and more affected by at least one layer of grease. It wasn't so noticeable until I started getting an area clean and it was WHITE compared to NOT WHITE. Smiles.

I could NOT get an area clean above my stove top where a previous pressure cooker spewed out a gasket and shot a powerful and greasy mess to stay for too long. When it happened, I immediately set to work grabbing all the skillets and took turns with a little girl spending time in our home trying to remedy to damage. We never could get the worst parts/places.

That has ALL changed!

I asked my husband to try cleaning an area to see if maybe I just wasn't using enough muscle in tackling this bad looking problem. He scrubbed a bit using a damp cloth, used one of my own cleaners, tried a strong solution of Simple Green and then jumped down saying he knew exactly what to use. He came back from the bathroom carrying a can of Scrubbing Bubbles.

"Those are specifically for the bathroom and I don't think they will work on something that hard to clean." This is what I told my husband so he wouldn't waste his time on something that so obviously wouldn't work.

He sprayed a small area. He wiped it and told me to look where the grease HAD been! It wiped RIGHT OFF! He started spraying more and do you know that in a matter of MINUTES . the entire white beam was white again and so was the wall behind it!

When he stopped to finish what he had been doing before giving me a helping hand. I set about testing these bubbles. The only reason we even HAVE them is because one of my daughter's daily chores is cleaning the bathroom. Her list includes spraying down the sink and wiping it clean, spraying down the toilet handle and outside of toilet and cleaning the inside of it. Also, the floor, trash and so on.

Having a little brother makes this job detestable for her (I'll spare you the reasons why --- he has to clean up after himself but even when he does, we want a bit more assurance of sanitation) so when she begged for Scrubbing Bubbles (her favorite since she was little) . I gave in. On our last trip to Sam's, I bought her a three pack.

I make ALL of our cleaners so this kind of goes against what we are doing in order to save money, the earth and ourselves from dangerous chemicals. There are exceptions to that and this is one in our home!

My vent hood has been such a challenge to clean but I got it clean with one spray of the Scrubbing Bubbles foam and a quick wipe down! I did the same for the black side of our fridge and the top of it --- wiped as clean as new.

I am not recommending anyone try this though BECAUSE I don't know if it is actually safe on appliances, painted surfaces and even walls. I just had to share that it DID make a huge difference in my cleaning today! I got about half of the kitchen scrubbed and polished clean and will try to finish the few areas of wall I didn't get to today, cabinet fronts, and the other stainless steel cart tomorrow.

It is EXCITING to find something so instantly effective!

Do you have a favorite cleaner? An amazing discovery with something surprising you with how well it worked? Please share!

I've been trying to get my kitchen totally done so I can do some batch baking so MAYBE I'll get to that soon.

Love,
Sandy

One Drawer at a Time...

2009-01-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

One Drawer at a Time, Sweet Jesus

My mom spent many years humming, singing, or saying the words to the song… “One Day at a Time” … and she brought this up during a recent conversation.

When hard times pressed her down as a single, working mother of four daughters, I’d hear parts of that song.
“One day at a time, sweet Jesus, that’s all I’m asking of You” and so on. When her Daddy was in a hospital bed the last hours of his life, he couldn’t sleep unless she held his hand. She was tired already because she was in nursing school full time and spending every other available moment with Grandaddy. She grew so tired at one point, she grew fearful that she wouldn’t be able to keep it up.
She thought to the Lord… “One moment at a time, sweet Jesus” and He gave her the strength to not let go.

My first year of homeschooling four children from 5 years up to high school years, I wore myself out in a matter of weeks. A mentor, friend, and our Pastor’s wife (all one lady) exhorted me to only focus on one day at a time. “We can handle one day” , she shared. It served me well.

Most of the time, there is a touching story to go with one whatever at a time but I’ve found myself thinking of it in simple homemaking!

It is easy reach a point where you don’t feel strong enough for the task. The dishes, laundry, muddy floors, spotty windows and what feel like decades of dust can seem to be bigger than one person. They usually are and for those of us with kids --- we shouldn’t be doing it alone in the first place.
Regardless, even though my kids have chore list, rooms to take on daily, dinner and after meal clean up duties and so on… a lot order ends up on me. Sometimes I do better than others… smiles.

Anyway, things need to be done for thousands of reasons and jobs can only be put off for so long. I am back to tackling an area or room a day until the whole house is shining again… or at least offering a gleam or glow.

Today it was my little writing room here along with some of the kitchen cabinets. I worked most of the day and into the evening and tackled it one drawer, one shelf, one area at a time. I covered a great deal more than I realized I would and hope to pick it back up tomorrow.

I removed everything from four shelving areas and gave the tops, sides and bottoms a good scrubbing. I then organized and changed some things around for better functioning. The sweet and sticky things (smaller containers of honey, molasses, corn syrup, agave nectar and so on) fit nicely in one of my less often used baking dishes. All spices are together, baking basics are gathered, and food storage items grouped together.

I managed six drawers, too! One wide drawer has held my dry measuring cups, measuring spoons, Mason jar lids and biscuit/cookie cutters. It has always been hard to keep orderly. Today, I found Christmas cookie tins that fit perfectly in my drawer in rows of three! I have six small "dividers" and a large tin along with two round. Blake even loved this idea:)

How are you doing on homekeeping? Are there duties you have put off and been too overwhelmed to tackle? Ask the Lord to get you through one piece of it at a time and see what a difference it makes!

I’m going after the addictively vintage saying of everything having a place and everything being in its place. This is one of my New Year’s goals --- to find a place for every single thing or send it to another loving home.

Book recommendation: 15-Minute Home and Family Organizer by Emilie Barnes. This was one of the first homemaking books I read from start to finish and I still love it.

One Day At A Time

I'm only human--
I'm just a woman.
Help me believe in what I believe
and all that I am.
Show me the stairway
that I have to climb,
Lord, for my sake,
teach me to take,
One day At A time.

One Day at a time, sweet Jesus,
that's all I'm asking of you.
Teach me today, to do all the things
that I have to do.
Yesterdays gone, Sweet Jesus,
and tomorrow may never be mine.
Lord, for my sake,
teach me to take,
One day At A time.

Do you remember,
when you walked among men?
Well, Jesus you know, if you're looking below,
It's worse now than then.
There's cheating and stealing--
violence and crime.
So for my sake -
teach me to take
One day At A time.
Marijohn Wilkins and Kris Kristofferson

Sometimes it is the Little Things. . .

2008-11-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

Today at our humble, worn down, and lately weary little homestead, I lit some candles. I was given a lavender, Autumn, and Tangerine candle as gifts (thank you, YOU) and I lit them in separate rooms after the whole family worked together.

I asked for a little help tonight but planned to do the majority of it myself. I was given a tremendous blessing in the service of helping hands.
My back was hurting after washing dishes and leaning into the dishwasher for the third time today so my husband said he’d wash the rest. This man doesn’t do dishes. No, he is not a happy dish washer and it is actually at the top of his “hate this job” list in home life. I tell you this to reveal what a gift him performing this action truly was.

Our teen daughter worked from room to room with a lot less complaining over the music her dad played than usual. This isn’t to say she was singing with the Bee Gee’s and I can’t deny hearing more than one shriek of: “WHAT is WRONG with his voice”?! Sorry, child. It is called talent and the screaming bands of today aren’t all familiar with what that actually means. She made it through trying to block out the music as she went.

Our five year old really didn’t help. He actually had his door removed for awhile because he won’t quit slamming it. Working on a few behavioral issues there as is obvious by the door deal. One day at a time, sweet Jesus!

I share all of this because the difference I feel in the aftermath is astounding.

The finances aren’t any better.

There are still more loads of laundry to hang than lines (and we have five decent sized lines) with sheets and blankets needing a good wash.

The air conditioning still isn’t working.

We still don't have the heat turned on for the winter.

There is still a lot of work to do.

And yet…

I am calm and I type in an air of contentment.

The little things can sometimes end up bounding over the big things.
What I mean is… washing dishes, wiping down counters, sweeping floors, tidying cushions and lighting candles are done daily around here. They usually don’t seem to make much of a difference. Then, a day like today comes up and having all of us working on these together … made them amazing.

Rose oil simmers slowly in the little snowflake burner my sister got me one year and this essential oil is known to help balance out emotions or moods. It is just right tonight…

"Our Wednesday"

2008-10-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

I wrote a post about spending Wednesdays with my D-I-Love, Brandy. This was before a friend (thanks, Karla) shared the tip of writing each blog into a Word document (she uses Google and I use Microsoft) first and THEN pasting that into the blog site. HAD I been in the habit of doing that, I wouldn’t have lost an ENTIRE post but I did. So upsetting I haven’t had the heart to try writing it again.
I’ll try to sum it up instead.

Brandy is my first D-I-Love. During her pregnancy with our first granddaughter, her doctor’s appointments were almost always scheduled on Wednesdays. On days when Michael, (our oldest son) couldn’t get off work to take her, I’d pick her up. Off we’d go to the doctor wondering what he’d say before we got there and talking about what he said on our way back.

It became a special time between the two of us.

When Emily was born, the Wednesdays ended with the pregnancy and daily life picked up, the same kind of rhythm as before. There ended up being tension in our relationship.

She wanted me to spend more time with her first child and our first grandbaby and was hurt. I never visited them without an invitation. I was stretched to keep up with my family responsibilities and could not bring myself to invite myself so I only went if she invited me.

It ended with a sharing of her heart in wanting me to be an active part of Emily’s life and expressing how hurt she felt. She told me her mother (who lives several states away) would cry on the phone over Emily’s firsts and I was right here and wasn’t “there” for them.

Even though it was a huge moment of revelation for me (she was right) … I didn’t know how to change it.
I wrote her a letter and prayed before writing it. I ended up typing through tears as the Lord revealed the truth to me. She needed me and my grandbaby needed me and I wasn’t there for either of them.

I saw myself and my roles as Mother-In-Love and Grandmother as they were and I wasn’t “in” them. It broke my heart. I emptied my thoughts into that letter and told her the truth: that I didn’t know how to be either one of those things because I had never been them before. I told her to be patient with me and maybe she could help me learn to be better in both roles.

She has.

We somehow, by the grace and gift of God, decided to dedicate Wednesdays as our day together. A day we would spend together… just us… to build a bond.

Brandy has pushed for these days. She knows how busy I stay and how often company comes and people call me away and she has held strong in protecting the middle of the week. . . Wednesdays. Our days.

We’ve been doing this since Emily was a few weeks old and it is hard to find words for what JOY this has brought me. My grandgirl loves me and she has been a Nandy’s girl since the start. Her mother has loved her enough to let her be and she has loved me enough to make it happen.

Everyone knows how close this now 2 year old child is with her grandmama and I know it is a matter of the heart. The heart of a mother who cared enough to not let go when that would have been easier.

Now, we have added Caden and she has strengthened his relationship with me and nurtured the bond between she and I even more. He will be a year old in a couple of weeks and he has been sharing our Wednesdays since birth.

We make a lunch together and try to always include a dessert. We watch a movie when we can or scrapbook or whatever we find to do and we always, always talk. We share these children with joined hearts and I am completely grateful to her and to the Lord for her.

Today, our lunch was bow tie pasta tossed with olive oil, sautéed onions and garlic, steamed broccoli, seasonings and so ons. We had seasoned Tilapia fish, baked and broiled in the oven and sweet iced tea.
We kept up with the kids by consuming two pots of lovely coffee and hours of conversation.

Now, when I share the many menus from "Our Wednesdays" --- you'll know what I mean. Smile...

Rth 1:16 But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

Pulling Back Curtains

2008-10-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

For a glance into my household and heart...

It is cold in my home today!
There is no heat yet and we won’t turn it on until we must. I can have it warmed up in not time when I’m staying home because I fire up the ovens and bake the day away☺.

Growing-up-on-me-little-man and I are leaving in a few minutes for an almost hour drive away. My D-I-L invited us to her new apartment and one little boy is excited about going.

Today is supposed to be my baking day but I’m pretty low on ingredients anyway so I’ll move it to a later time this week. I got the laundry done, dishes washed, counters wiped down and I’ll make the bed before we leave.

I was working through these basic routines with thoughts going through my head about lots of things but realized something. I realized how comfortable I was. The sun was streaming through the windows, warm and sudsy water swished in the sink, and the dryer’s warmth had a sound all it’s own.

There was a time these would be dreaded chores for me and I wonder why. I guess it was a state of mind… of life and maybe spoke of where I was spiritually. Perhaps, it shows a heart change in the love I have learned to have in such things.
One of my favorite coffee mugs was drained twice today and we had sweetener and cream to make it delicious. This made my morning Bible reading so cozy.

Our five year old who has finally been moved to his own little bed in his own little room… got cold. In the early, early morning hours he climbed up in my bed and told me he was sleepy and tired. I held him close and thought of how quickly it flies… the time between them being small enough to lie with warm heads under my chin to having their own beds in their own homes. Ah, the ponderings of a woman at home sometimes. Smile.

When I write of the woman at home, I refer to all women. Where ever our home is, however we arrange and manage the hours in it, whatever we are doing in it… we find ourselves …of it.

We all clean, many of us cook, we read and write, talk and tell, whisper and some of us yell. Thankfully and by the grace of God Himself… the latter has dwindled down to almost never but the monster still lurches out. How does my Father love me so?

Thus finishes a note pulled like a wedge from the sections in my home life…

Homemaking Prayer

2008-10-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

Homemaking Prayer
Dear Lord, I come to you in the Name of Jesus and I ask for Your hand in my homekeeping.
Father, I know this request might sound strange to some but it won't to You. You know me. You know My coming and my going... my inmost inner thoughts. You know my heart.

The longings I have to be a Proverbs 31 woman have been like a flag blowing from
A deeply grounded pole. It has flown high and waved strongly in the fiercest of winds and at times it has become faded, tattered, worn.
The replaced "flag" has been hope found in Your Word. I seek You in that hope today.

You have brought me far, my Lord.
You have brought me from taking my cleaning and order too far in putting it above the comfort of my family and through times when it was the opposite.

Carry me on.
Don't let me give up.
Lift my face from my circumstances and shine Your light into my eyes, into my mind, into my heart.

There is noble work to be done here and I am the leader you have placed at the helm of this homestead. My husband is the head of our family and I am the manager of our home.
Let me not grow weary. Let me not give way or give up just because I cannot see the substance of things prayed for.

Help me praise You for clean laundry, neat dressers, washed dishes, wiped counters, cleared tables and swept floors.
Ignite the sparks of joy into brilliant flames and drown the despair of the undone and the not yet accomplished.

The defeater and leader of lies lurks around the corners aiming discouraging missiles about my home. Sinister whisperings filled with pride... saying we should be better than this by now. Saying we've earned to not have leaking ceilings, worn out wood on the porch, and gleamless floors.
What destruction for the heart these thoughts are!
What have we done to even deserve the beauty and the blessings we have?!

Oh, Lord! Forgive me for allowing such wicked imaginations to even enter in the doors or the windows of me or of my home.
I have appliances working for me all over my home, furniture to hold onto my loved ones in as we watch movies together, books in crooked little stacks all over to read from. I have a husband who drinks his coffee right here with me each morning as I drink mine. I have children and daughters in love and I have grandchildren to call my own! There is so much to thank You for... how could I allow a fragment of energy towards dwelling on any lack? There is no lack when YOU are Lord of a life!

Lift me up each and every morning to YOUR radiance and put a song in my heart for the duties of the day. Let my apron strings swing into place and my joy be complete as I serve YOU in all I do.
Take my hand, dear Father of mine. Take my hand and let me bow to You as I follow Your lead.

Make my home an outpouring of YOU in every place and let me delight in the work to make it clean, cozy and comforting. Make my home a haven and give my hands the work to make it that way.
Don't let the sun go down with any anger here but allow peace to permeate wall to wall and window to window.

I am a HOMEMAKER assigned to this place by THE CREATOR of all and this is nothing short of a miracle in my life.
Thank You. Praise You. Lift Your Name on High.

Help me in my homekeeping. Let my work here bring YOU glory and honor and praise!
I bow my head and lift my hand to Yours... and offer this home into Your service.
I keep this home and You keep this heart.

In the Name of Jesus... Our Loving Savior... King above all kings and Lord of all, Amen.

Home Tones (Moving from Home Notes Email List)

2008-10-19T15:25:00.001-07:00

Home Tones

Isn't it funny how we can tell the tone of one's home within minutes of
stepping in?
We can feel and sense something warm, sweet, cozy, and loving as quickly
as their opposites; cold, unkind, uncomfortable and hate filled.

When you walk into your home what is the tone? What is the tone when your
husband, children, and visitors of all kinds step inside?

What is the tone while you are home? The hours and moments you share with
your family --- how are they?

If bickering and disagreements are frequent there is a reason. I don't write
that there are "reasons" because there is ONE. It is spiritual disharmony. A
cut in the relationship between God and family. Something in the soul is not
as close to our Lord as is needed for discord to be prevalent in your days.

Disorder is another one... where disorder is present, peace isn't.
Who is it happy and humming when every thing they are around is cluttered,
disorganized, chaotic, and with no symmetry?
No one remains happy for long in this environment. No one remains smiling
when they cannot find anything, have to sort through stacks to find needed
papers, can't get dressed until this load or that load is completed and on
the list goes.
I get flustered even writing this! I feel uneasy and restless just thinking
about it for I have lived through it and the pain it causes.
As I type I have areas clean and shining and those in dire need of my
capable and working hands. The areas in need of some old fashioned work have
been causing such frustration into my days!
My desk has been cleared but there are now several stacks of paper to go
through and put up. The kids' school desk is covered in items that we must
find places for since we changed over from home school to public school. My
shower stall needs scrubbed down and wiped with baby oil and this entire
house is in such a great need for dusting that I cannot believe it has gone
by this long with no care.
I walk in one room and my mood immediately lifts... my spirits rise up and
smile... until I walk into this office or see another layer of dust!

I have started adding these annoying jobs on to my daily routines and to do
lists so I hope to have them behind me soon. My point in sharing them is
this: disorder creates confusion and distracts us from what God wants us to
see, do, feel, or hear.

What is another thing that can hamper the tone of your home?
Overdoing... over scheduling... running on empty due to running too much,
too often, and too quickly. Not taking a break or having down time. This is
a hard one for me to handle. I get up at 5:00 and never stop. My quiet time
with the Lord is first so I guess you could consider that as stopping but
that is the extent of it.
This isn't good. When we "over-go", we find ourselves missing shared meal
times together, shared conversation time, shared laughter or shared
anything. Everyone wakes up one day to realize that we are all running in
separate directions!
No relationships hold up to this for too long without some real problems.
Problems understanding each other, serving each other or even knowing each
other.

What a TONE a home would have with even one of the things mentioned here
(discord, disorder & over "going")... and even more so with two or ALL of
them going on at once!
The Home Tones would not be pleasant for you, your husband, your children or
any visitor chancing in!

This tone would be negative and depressing! This home would not be one to
uplift, encourage, comfort or care for those living in it or drawing to it.
This home would not glorify our Lord in any way, would it?

What other way is there? What other "Home Tone" is there to achieve?

Let's see...

Harmony... the members of a family connecting in a loving and nurturing way
with one another more than disagreeing. Family that works through any
misunderstandings in calm and proper ways.
Of course, we will have moments far from serene in our lives of learning to
live with each other but we can always strive to walk in love. Walking in
love calls for living in the beauty of working together towards a common
goal.

Order... oh, the inexpressible joy in a freshly cleaned home! The pure and
total delight in a haven where every item inside has a place and a reason
for being there!
Isn't it simply lovely to glance around a room before leaving to see care in
every section?
A laundry room with all the laundry washed, dried, folded and put away? A
kitchen with a shining table, a swept floor, clean counters and a scrubbed
sink? Picture the office with clean and dust free surfaces where papers are
all sorted in appropriate files, pens and pencils all gathered in one spot
and a desk top with nothing on it to dwell on!
Visualize a living room recently vacuumed, polished wood, clear picture
frames and tidied cushions... bedrooms where each bed is neatly made, floors
are clean and dresser tops are neat... bathrooms where everything is shiny
and well kept... what tranquility these pictures create!
It isn't impossible and it should be a priority in our busy lives.

Over Scheduling... maybe this one could be called "under-scheduling" since
running around without stopping usually reveals a random attack on a to do
list without proper planning.
When we run a race through every day as the days turn into weeks and we
don't stop to enjoy the beauty in relaxing... we rob ourselves of a God
given peace and make our own stress rise to dangerously high levels.
What things do you enjoy doing yet never seem to find time for? Whatever
those things are... consider the wisdom in making them appointments into
your life. Anyone - with some effort - can manage to fit the fun in! It
isn't selfish to make time for serenity and repose. It is vital to your
health and well being.

What is the tone in your home right now? What tone do you want it to be?
A home that is cozy, comfortable, loving, kind, happy, well managed and
properly run can be done and should be reached for. It may take some work
initially but it will save work and heartache later on.

It is my prayer that we all... each one of us desiring to have homes with
GOD tones... that we will take the steps and make the effort to follow in
the faithful and competent footsteps of the One who walks before us. The One
who guides us each step of the way whether we look up to see Him leading us
or keep our faces turned to the ground.

Look up, sweet daughter of God. He is looking gently into your face and
reaching out to steady you. His desire and delight is to have you lean on
Him as He makes not only your home... but your life, also, all it can be in
Christ.

His sweet and tender blessings on you...

Love, Sandy

Where No Evil Dwells

2008-10-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Where No Evil Dwells…

"But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death,
Because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you
From the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to
seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you
shall purge the evil from among you." Deuteronomy 13:5

Dear Sisters,

This letter has been prompted into place due to circumstances all too heart breakingly real.
Just this past week a situation was revealed in a home where wounded souls threatened to tear apart two families.
Unfortunately… this is all too common.
What kind of situation am I referring to? Evil. Seeping, crawling, pouring, flooding, and storming through the homes of men, women, and children.
Evil that doesn't affect only the one allowing it in but runs to each person in the home. Evil comes in many forms but it never ends up as "small" as it seems to start.

So many times you don't hear anything until so much has happened that
it takes much work to "fix". It would be so much better to catch these
problems early on before they have gained such control as to destroy
and destruct the family structure.

Every evil… every sin starts with just a thought. Not one of us has
lived life without such thoughts. From naughty to wicked they come, trying to find a place to settle. Once they settle… they are anything BUT calm and content. These sinful thoughts run rampant and strong, thriving on
each new thought… each one a bit worse than the previous. If this keeps up… sin happens.

Praise our LORD and FATHER that He gives us sound minds! Because we have sound minds we are able to control our thoughts. When negative or sinful thinking comes in the door… we must aggressively throw them
OUT. We make them no more than passers by when we do this.
So many people feel powerless over their own thinking patterns. They truly believe that everything is based on what they FEEL. We cannot base our lives, actions, or reactions in life to feelings and get it right.
Just won t happen. Feelings… like everything under God… always change. Shift around trying to find a place to fit in. They only "fit" when they are disciplined to be under the authority of the Word!

"If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God." Deuteronomy 28:58

The wayward husband who leaves his wife and family to be with another woman or live a wild and "free" life doesn't live a loving life oneminute and abandon it all the next. It starts with a thought. Thoughts allowed to continue to grow and turn into sins. I cannot stress this enough!

The married woman who parties all night long and has unnatural relations with another woman doesn't love her husband and children one second and run out the door to play in the streets of sin the very next. No.

It starts with a thought. These are shocking statements to make, aren't they? I know they are but there are houses all around you where these things are happening everywhere. Even though they are kept secret for long
amounts of time… the truth eventually comes out.

"For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the
light, lest his deeds should be exposed." John 3:20

We must guard our hearts. Our thoughts might start in our minds but if our hearts are pure they will serve as filters for those thoughts. If we have a sinful thought and our heart is filled to overflowing of the LORD'S LIGHT … the heart will not allow the mind to continue on with impure ponderings.

"For Thou art not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil Dwells with Thee." Psalm 5:4

We must flee from the evil and strive to do good.
What are our tendencies? If we don't know any better --- we hide from the truth in any way we can.

Are you doing this? Is there something going on with you that you know isn't right but figure you can deal with it later and just carry on this way for "today"? Are you hiding behind your own smiles while your spouse
does things you would know were wrong if you let yourself admit he was doing them? Are you allowing your children to be flooded with things they should never see or hear --- but you don't act --- for everyone else is
doing it and it's just too "hard" to deal with? Is your home harboring any evil?

"Depart from evil, and do good; Seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 34:14

Are these tough questions? Yes. Are they reality? Yes. Is there hope? Yes.
Our hope is in the LORD. He answers every need. He solves every problem. There is nothing… nothing… NOTHING He is incapable of handling.

Will He come in and force you to live right and keep pure standards For yourself and those you love? No. He knows in His infinite wisdom that The decision must be placed on your shoulders. He'll bear the burden but
only if you give it to Him. He will not take it from you without asking. How do we live? How do we keep our homes pure and safe from the darkness swirling around our doorways? We don't think evil thoughts!

If we are lying in bed and a wrong thought comes to mind… we renounce that thought… we confess it right then and there to God and we ask Him to take it from us.
Thoughts can be strong and satan can really push them on us when he thinks we are winning the game with them. So what. He has no power compared to our LORD. Our Lord tells us to keep our thoughts pure and He
wouldn't give us a directive He couldn't or wouldn't help us uphold to.
We must walk a path that is "good". We make choices every day. Our Walk is all about choices. Not in and of ourselves. Choices that we either Sneak behind God's back to make… pretending He won't see if we don't look at Him --- OR --- we go to Him and see what HE says any time we start to Waver on what choice to make.

"He plans wickedness upon his bed; He sets himself on a path that is
Not good; he does not despise evil." Psalm 36:4

How have we allowed ourselves to become so comfortable with sin? How have we reached this point where we are so desensitized and numbed to the horror of sin? If we aren't HATING sin… we should be! We need to
check and make sure that we hate sin and love God's pure and beautiful Word!

"You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking what is right."
Psalm 52:3

"Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who preserves the souls of His Godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 97:10

We must restrain our feet from every evil way that we may keep His Word. We must restrain our feet… our thoughts… our words… anything that is Contrary to the Living Word must be cast out of our lives as quickly as it comes in.
Not restraining from evil way will make keeping His Word Impossible for we cannot keep His Word and run down the road of evil at the same time.

"I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy word."
Psalm 119:101

I cannot count the times I have written on proper priorities for women. I must add a few words on them again. This is the reality: WE CAN ONLY STAY ON THE RIGHTEOUS PATH WHEN OUR PRIORITIES ARE IN LINE.
When God isn't The most important thing in your life… everything under Him will fall apart.

When your husband is not placed right under God being the first love of your life… your marriage will crumble before your very eyes. When your children are not next in line under your husband… you will witness the effects
of that faulty living in their lives and you will account for those effects. When our homes do not fall in line under our children… peace is lost, Doors are flying open by the winds of sin, and every evil thing that tries To enter … can do so.

Precious daughter of God… loving wife, darling mother, dearest homemaker, stand strong in Christ Jesus. Keep your priorities in order and stay strong, strong, strong in the Word. Read His Word every single day no matter
WHAT you have to do to arrange it. Pray. Pour time into getting to know Him. Seek first His Kingdom. Love your husband and see the truth… that how you Deal with your marriage reflects strongly on your spiritual life. Marriage is set up as Jesus Christ is with the church. It is holy, it is sacred, and it is pure. Don't look at what another man offers --- he offers death and darkness while your husband offers light and love in the Lord. Valiantly love your children at every age, stage and phase of their lovely lives. Spend time with them… teach them…discipline them… love them. Don't neglect your home.
Take the time to clean it and bring order about during the hours you Spend in it. Cook meals and wash dishes…sweep floors and keep trash taken out. Tuck clean sheets onto the beds your loved ones snuggle in at night
and you will have peace when you turn out the lights. Guard your home. There are guardian angels at your service on missions from God to protect you, look after you and to help you fight to keep the evil out and the good in. Watch your coming and your going. Look to God for your answers and in making your decisions. Weigh every thought, every deed, every word, every all with the Word in the Bible. If it doesn't line up… do
whatever it takes until it does! Let Jesus lead and you will have a home where no evil dwells…

In His Mighty Love,
Sandy:-)

Posting Pre-Written Articles

2008-10-19T07:33:00.001-07:00

I am posting as many of the articles from the Home Notes email list I can manage on here.
The reason for this (and for doing it on Nutmeg Notes as well) is for easier retrieval. Many, many times readers have written asking for a former recipe or writing and I either give the instructions to find it or go get it from the files myself.

The problem with this is how long it can still take to get where we are going! With the blog format, you can go through a quick list and see at a glance what titles are saved.

Anyway, I'm just sharing this for those who have already read most of these and wonder why they are showing up again:)

Love,
Sandy

Missed Post on Quiet Time

2008-10-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

What is a Quiet Time
and why do I need it?

From: The House of Hope website:
________________________________________

The maple tree is prized for its cool summer shade, its beautiful woodgrain, its red fall foilage, and its delightful sap. It has weathered many storms by sending its roots deep. The maple spends its days absorbing nutrients from the earth and the sun, and drinking moisture from God's bounty.

The cold winter nights are essential for the tree to be able to produce its sweet syrup in the Spring. The colder winter, the greater the sap production. But the cold winter night doesn't hurt the maple because it has stored God's nutrients in its trunk.
We could learn a lesson from the maple. We live such shallow lives, indulging our flesh but neglecting our spiritual needs. Then we wonder why our leaves are sparse, our woodgrain is blemished, our foilage is faded, and our sap is bittersweet.

God said, "For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Just as the maple drinks the moisture that God provides, so do we need to drink from God's fountains of living waters in His Word instead of looking to the world to quench our thirst.

Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). God' has given us His Word in the Scriptures. How different our lives would be if we would take time to feed on the Spiritual nutirents there!

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper (Psalm 1:1-3).

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

A daily Quiet Time with God helps us achieve the purpose and serenity we all look for. Just as we need nutrients from food for our physical bodies each day, we need nourishment of God's Word for our emotional and spiritual needs. We need to send our roots deep into His precepts in order to weather our storms. We need His guidance and wisdom for our cold winter nights.

http://www.house-of-hope.net/daily/what.html

Tell me the best time for a daily
Quiet Time
________________________________________

To establish your Quiet Time, determine what part of your day is best to set aside for spending time with Him.
Many people find that the best time is early in the morning, before the household is stirring. This starts the day with Him, and gives Him an opportunity to provide reinforcements for the day.
Others find the best time to be at night right before bed. This allows opportunity to review the day with God and plan for tomorrow with Him.

Some people spend a portion of their lunch hour alone with God.
Young mothers often snatch the time while their children are napping.
People who commute for long distances to work often use this time to pray and listen to an audiocassette of Scripture. The disadvantages of this method are the inability to take notes while driving, and the fact that most people don't work seven days a week.

The time you choose to spend with Him will be based upon whatever your schedule allows. Ask God to help you find the time that is best for you.

The most important thing is that you set aside a definite time. It is too easy for our good intentions to get lost in the shuffle of life is we don't make a definite commitment here.

Plan to spend some time listening to Him through Bible reading. Plan to spend another portion of this time talking with him through prayer.

If you miss a day, you will find that things seem more complicated, stressful. Don't despair, just ask Him to forgive you if you missed your time with Him through neglect. Ask Him to help you get back on target the next day.

http://www.house-of-hope.net/daily/time.html

Done In Love

2008-10-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

Done In Love…

How many references to love are made in the Bible? I'm sure there is
someone out there who has this information on hand… I'm not one who
does or desires to. I do know that it would probably take a long,
long time to manually count the times we find "love" of all kinds in
this Book provided us by God.

There are just as many things on our daily "to do" list as there are
mentions of "love" in the Bible and we need to see how we are doing
these things. Are we doing everything in a state of love --- an act
of love ---choosing to treat and perform with love in our hearts?

When we get up in the mornings we choose to greet the day with loving
gratitude to God for giving us this bright and new chance or choosing
to count everything wrong and all the tasks which must be faced in
the hours ahead.
When we cook breakfast and start about the daily chores… is love from
our hearts pouring out into each thing we do? Food preparations become
mundane to us after doing them meal after meal and day after day. The
Bible mentions MANY times the preparations of foods because this is
important.
Preparing food must be done in order for those in our homes to be
properly fed. Preparing meals offers us the beauty of routine…
structure…and consistency. We can tie other routines and tasks in
with meals and have a well managed home by habit.

When we answer the phone… reply to an email… pen or type out a letter…
or open our doors to a knock… is our immediate and ending response
one of love? When we are driving the kids to school or appointments,
meeting with teachers or doctors and so on… does love flow from us?
While helping with homework… talking over dinner… or anything else…
is there love in you? In me?

I would so love to say that love just rushed out like a waterfall in
every encounter of my ever day. It isn't the case. I always, always,
always fall short. Why? Because I daily have to remind myself that it
isn't "my love to give. I have no love to give… any "love" I could
dig into my soul to
find of my own would not be love at all. Drawing from Christ in me is
a different story! HIS love is so grand and such a strong, true, and
endless one, there are not enough chances to pour it out in one day!
If I remind myself that I don't have to manufacture or create this
love --- that would be an impossible task --- All I have to do is
open up my inner doors of reserve to that glowing and pouring love of
the Lord.

What happens when I throw aside myself and exalt the love of Christ?
When I'm washing the dishes, communicating with others, making beds,
dealing with and disciplining our kids, preparing our meals and on
the list goes (?)… I am doing so with inner peace and tranquility
only experienced when God is loving THROUGH me and that love flows
from me and into every one who I come into contact with.

We are called to walk in love. "…and walk in love, just as Christ also
loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to
God as a fragrant aroma." Ephesians 5:2 NASB. May we give ourselves
up for Him, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma!
Walking in love, sisters, and living in love. Not our love… His love.

We can love our God because He first loved us by giving His only Son
up for our eternal lives. We can love our husbands ---even when it is
hard --- because our example is Christ and the church.

32 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his
wife, and the two will become one flesh.

33 This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church."

Ephesians 5:32-33 NIV.

We can love our children through all the ups and downs
and show them that love and we can train other women to do the same.
(Titus 2:4).
We can love others ---all others --- See I John 3:11.
How can we love others all the time?
We can because love COMES FROM GOD.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."
I John 4:7 NIV.

Love is not a feeling. Feelings come as a reward of love… but love is
an action. Love is a choice. Sound wrong? It probably is compared to
what the world teaches. The world teaches real love is felt and
when we don't feel it anymore it is gone. The world tells and teaches
us to not do something in love unless we "feel" it. The Bible seems
to point us in a different direction. The Bible says that we are to
love… period.

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue
but with actions and in truth." I John 3:18 NIV

I encourage you to focus for the rest of this day (we learn to take
things ONE day at a time, don't we?) on walking in love. I urge you
onward to remember that love is always a choice and it comes from
God. I pray that everything, everything, yes, everything you do… will
be done in love.

Love:-) Sandy

Free/Donation Bible Study Program

2008-10-10T14:57:00.001-07:00

I forgot one of the Quiet Time/Bible Study online sources I had planned to share!

A friend from clean & cozy home (thanks, you:) told me about a program she enjoyed for helping her study the Bible.

I have been using it ever since!

You download it on your computer and choose what you want to add or not. Most things are free but there is a charge for some of the Bible translations and a few other things. This is totally free or you can donate a small fee to however much you desire to give. I used it for free until about a year ago and decided to send in a donation and at the time there was a deal where I got a free cd filled with Bible study materials on it!
I didn't do it for that but it was a nice surprise.

Anyway, here it is if you'd like to look into it:

www.e-sword.net

6 Questions for Simple Bible Study

2008-10-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

6 questions for simple Bible Study

Just print this off and fold into your bible for reference as you read the Word. I think if you journal this would be a good set of questions to use as well.

Six questions for simple Bible study

1) What verses stand out to me in this passage that encourage or challenge me?

2) What is this passage about? What is the main idea?

3) Why did the author write these verses? What was he trying to achieve?

4) What do we learn about God, about ourselves and about others?

5) What promises, insights, warnings or commands do we see in this passage?

6) How can we apply this truth during the next week/month? What can we do? How can we think differently than previously?

End with prayer for yourself or for others in relation to what you have studied.

Shared by my dear friend, Kim. I love her blog and writings and am excited to share a blog she has started from Latvia!

http://latviagirl.wordpress.com/

*Photo* is from Kim's blog!

My Quiet Time Notebook

2008-10-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

My Quiet Time Notebook

I have had several journals, notebooks, and binders for all kinds of things and I just can't get enough of them:) There is just something about having things gathered in one place appealing to me.

Anyway, I have planned to put together a Prayer Notebook but have already filled up several. After seeing the Quiet Time Notebook on the Catherine Marshall site I shared and knowing the purchase isn't in the budget, decided to make my own.

Mine will probably be one of the most basic anyone can think it but I want simplicity. Why? To keep me at it so I'll have a collected place for my quiet time to be recorded. This is a trial run to see if I like the format bec/ I have a part of my closet filled with journals, prayer journals and more. Most were filled up during my daily quiet times. It may be that a simple notebook is what I stick with. I just think trying something a bit more organized might give my times a boost. Plus... it is an excuse for yet another notebook.

If we manage to get my computer glitch fixed keeping us from loading new pictures onto the computer OR into the printer... I will share pictures!

Meanwhile, I'll describe my plans and let you know how closely I do or don't stick to them!

Thin 3-ring binder (have one on hand)

Front of Binder: I hope to print a picture with maybe a Bible verse on the front.

Inside:

Cover sheet: Quiet Time Notebook 2008
A Record of my Daily times set aside to spend with the Lord.
Prayers, Scriptures, Ideas, Thoughts and Listening for the Lord.

First Tab: (haven't decided what kind of tabs I'll use. Either those pre-made ones or I'll cut and adhere some of my own)

Prayer: I'll hand write and/or print concerns, requests, praises, and more. Write out my prayers in the way I've done by habit for some time now:

1. Thank and praise the Lord. I thank Him for the morning, silence, happiness, specific blessings, time with Him or whatever is on my heart.
2. Ask forgiveness of sins. Repent of any known (write them specifically unless they could hurt someone and those are left unwritten) and unknown sins. As His forgiveness, cleansing, and for help.
3. Intercessory prayers. Pray for Blake, our kids and their families, and then requests or needs for and from others.
4. Prayers for the desires of my heart, prayers for help in personal areas. Personal prayer from me to the Lord.
5. PRAISES. I praise HIM just for being HIM in the start of my prayer time and end it praising Him for particular things He has done in our family and for/with others.

There are additions along the way but those are the basics.

Second Tab: Scriptures. Any speaking to my heart or showing me a truth, that catch my eye, make me want to study deeper on and so on.
I write out Scriptures more than anything. There is something rhythmic about reading them and writing out each one. Sometimes, I'll follow with a prayer using the Scriptures I just wrote.

Third Tab: Notes. These can be on Bible study, links to try, thoughts that come to me, distractions to get out of my head, to do's to keep me from losing focus, just notes and more notes. Smile.

If I want, I'll add tabs for inspirational things, prayers from others (there are a few from dear friends I folded and placed in my Bible) and whatever is wanted or needed.

If you have a quiet time notebook or journal you'd like to share about or share a picture of, please let me know! I'd love to see and if you'd like --- share it!

Quiet Time/Thursday

2008-10-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

Quiet Time/ Thursday

Online Resources

I know these aren’t extensive but I just wanted to share a small list to keep things simple. I haven’t been diving into all of these sites to know them in and out but from what I did read through… they seem like good starting points. I always tell people to please read with spiritual filters when getting information from the internet so we aren’t easily deceived.
That said, I love finding neat things online and here are the sites I am sharing for our Quiet Time series.

Message Board on Quiet Time
{I haven't checked this out yet other than scrolling through to see the topics. I wanted to spend more time reading the neat threads on favorite Bible study tools and plan to go back for those and maybe some others!}

http://www.quiettimecafe.com/

One ministry explaining what quiet time is or can be:

http://www.quiettime.org/whatisqt.htm

Very affordable books from Christian Book Distributors. One of my all time favorite online places to shop! Don't get to do so very often but I love this store! There is a book on Quiet Times right now for $3.99.

www.cbd.com OR www.christianbook.com

Ideas for and Notes on Quiet Time:

http://www.fbcsmyrna.org/quiettimetips

Another favorite site :) Karla sent me the link to this site a long time ago and I LOVE IT!
Here, the site owners offer free quiet time pages to print!

http://tinyurl.com/4w3vuy

If We Would be like our Master

2008-10-08T05:39:00.001-07:00

If we would be like our Master

(J. R. Miller, "Living Without Worry")

"Whoever claims to live in Him--must walk as
Jesus did." 1 John 2:6

Every true Christian should desire to be Christlike in
character. It is not enough to be honest, and upright,
and true, and just. Christ had these strong qualities
--but He was also gentle, and kind, and loving, and
patient. If we would be like our Master--we must
have these traits of character also in us. When we pray
that the beauty of the Lord may be upon us, we must
ask for these finer features of His beauty--as well as
for the more rugged ones. We need His strength and
truth and faithfulness and justice--but we need His
love and tenderness as well. "Leaving you an example,
so that you should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21

Quiet Time Testimony/George Mueller

2008-10-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

Written by: George Mueller

"While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost though now. . .more than forty years have since passed away.

"The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

"Before this time my practice had been, at least ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental, communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.

"The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

"The difference between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer. . .But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray.

"I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

"It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man.

"As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. What is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God, so that it not only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts. . .

"I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials and the temptations of the day come upon one!" [1]

Quiet Time ~ Tuesday

2008-10-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

Where do I have my quiet times?

This is in transition because I’m moving my desks into another room. Right now and for awhile, I’ve been doing my quiet times either at my desk in my bedroom (just to be close to the computer so I can use my Bible study program and for Matthew Henry’s Commentary --- more on those later) or at the dining room table.

When I move things into the other room (today, hurray!) … I am going to see if there is a place by the window for me to have my morning quiet time.

Previously, I have held my early morning moments with the Lord on my couch with a fire crackling in our fireplace. For safety and space reasons, we had to tear that humble hearth out and how dearly I miss it! I still light a candle during my quiet time as funds allow.

In the evening, I’ve been reading my Bible in the bed from the night stand right before falling asleep.

What I bring or have on hand:

A Bible. I have different Bibles so I take whichever one I want at the time.
A journal I use often for writing out prayers and also for recording Scriptures that speak to me, observations I’ve noted during Bible study, and things like that. I also let any thoughts coming at me flow onto the paper so nothing is blocking my concentration.
These are the basics but I also almost always have a devotional, book based on Scripture, poems, music, and things like that.

My routine:

I guess it is considered a routine since I try to have this time before much else but there is no set time. Like, I always start the coffee first because I like having a steaming cup close at hand to sip on while reading. I almost always start the laundry for the soft background noise. I like my morning quiet times as early as possible but with my thyroid still being regulated… sometimes I cannot sleep at night and it causes later morning rising!

The only other part of my routine is reading the Bible right before dozing off at night from a Bible I keep on my nightstand.

Love,Sandy

Will Work With Washcloths

2008-10-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Nutty title, I know.
I am a bit eccentric over cloth though. I’m sure each homemaker has her common, comfortable, and familiar choice for taking care of all the areas in her home.

For me, I love having small and easy to swish, wipe down, and wring out cloths for dishwashing, counter cleaning, wiping down the drainer and more. I use bigger (what I’ve seen called “bar mop” towels) for drying the dishes, drying out the sink, and things like that. For many years, I’ve used white versions of these with one blue stripe around the bottom. The last stack I bought finally wore out so I went for more and NONE were to be found! I really hope Sam’s gets more in one day when I have the funds to get them!

Instead, I got some I also like using and having around. They are all white and come in a bag of 60. They are listed as usable for automobiles, business, households and lots more. I really love these and have a freshly washed, dried, and folded drawer full with my white smaller dish cloths. Those, btw, are just a big pack from Sam’s of white washcloths. I get blue for our bodies.

I also use microfiber towels… a lot. I have a set of yellow for the toilet, bathroom floor, pet messes, and gross jobs. I thought the bright yellow might make the chores seems less dreadful!

Now? Everyone just dreads seeing the tiny tower of yellow towels :)

We have orange, blue, and green for dusting when we don’t use the dusters or vac, for cleaning up general spills, wiping down tables and tops, and just whatever job comes up. I would love seeing some pink to go along with these and maybe some lavender. That would make for a pretty cleaning closet, would it not? Just a note in the case you don’t already have the care of microfiber towels down: NEVER use fabric softener on them! I guess white vinegar in the rinse cycle won’t hurt (I sometimes use this and these seem to be fine with it) but fabric softener will mess them up from what I’ve seen and heard from others.

My husband got a smile over how happy I was to have some good coffee creamer (Sam’s had a delicious brand of half-n-half for $1.48 each and we have been paying anywhere from the cheapest at 1.87 to over 2.70!) and a new supply of cleaning and wash cloths! We had dwindled down to very little of either so I AM joyful to have a replenished supply.

How is your linen closet, dear Homemaker?
Do you have the cloths and/or towels you need to wash your dishes, wipe down your stove tops, clean your cabinets, clean your counters, wipe up spills and wash the microwave with?

Are your bathing washcloths in supply enough for each family member to get a shower without having to wait for one to wash with? Do you have enough towels to dry with?

Do a quick inventory. If you need more, make a note to buy a little or big pack as you can afford them. What about those you already have? Do you have a neat place to store them? Believe it or not, even such as these can make a pretty and cozy appearance in the home!

We are in the midst of major remodeling jobs so a lot of our storage is creative and possibly temporary. We have a pretty armoire in the living room formerly in our master bathroom. It came unfinished but Blake found a “milk wash” product from Home Depot and it turned out very nice. I’ll try to include a photo of it on a future Home Notes post.

Anyway, there are two shelves in that for my bath towels, hand towels, wash cloths and cleaning cloths. I neat stack the folded towels by size on one shelf and line all the cleaning towels by color/type on the other. Free domestic decorating. {smile}

Quiet Time ~ Monday

2008-10-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

What does QUIET TIME mean to you?

There isn't really a definition for it and I guess women along the way have used it to define more than one thing. For one, it might mean a literal time of quiet to just close eyes and hear no sound while it lasts!

The Quiet Time we are going to be referring to during this small series is actually a time with the Lord each day.

A time reading/studying the Bible and/or praying.

How we meet with God is very much a personal and private thing so God will guide each heart.

We are just highlighting it, bringing it to attention and having it focused on to offer the benefits of having a daily quiet time, share hows and to's, and to share resources.

Let's get started with some questions:

If you already devote a time each day for reading the Bible:

Where do you have it?

What do you bring?

Do you have a set routine? Set time?

If so, what is the routine and/or time?

Love,

Sandy

Grandmamma's Secret

2008-10-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

"Is this your religion?"by J. A. James (on Christian love)

What is the secret, grandmamma?(

J. R. Miller, "The Duty of Pleasing Others" 1904)

"Each one of us must please his neighbor for his good, in order to build him up." Romans 15:2

The Duchess of Kent was universally beloved. Once the Princess Alice, herself simple, sweet and unspoiled, asked her:

"What makes everyone love to be with you? I am always so sorry to have to leave you--and so are all the others who come here. What is the secret, grandmamma?"

It was not easy for the noble woman to answer such a personal question. But it was important that it should be answered for the sake of her who had asked it, and who was indeed hungry to know the secret. So the noble lady gave this memorable answer:

"I was early instructed, that the way to please others--was to be sincerely interested in the things which interested them, namely their own affairs; and that this could be accomplished only by burying one's own troubles, interests, or joys completely out of sight. Forgetfulness of one's own concerns, a smiling face, a sincere word of sympathy, or unselfish help, where it is possible to give it--will always please others--and the giver equally so."

"I try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them--so they may be saved." 1 Corinthians 10:33

We have published J. R. Miller's book, "

The Ministry of Comfort". The choice chapters are:
The Effacement of SELF
The Habit of Happiness