Thankful Thursday

Today I am so thankful for hard working husbands..... Eric is such a great provider for us....both in our physical needs as well as spiritual leadership.... yesterday he worked all day, then came home and worked until well after dark putting in our little garden for the summer.... what a wonderful man God has sent to me!!!

Deu 6:7 (NKJV) "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. "

Read other Thankful Thursday posts HERE.

Wednesday's Word

Isa 40:9-11 (NLT) Messenger of good news, shout to Zion from the mountaintops! Shout louder to Jerusalem-do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, "Your God is coming!" Yes, the Sovereign LORD is coming in all his glorious power. He will rule with awesome strength. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.

Oh, what a beautiful vision.... Christ coming .... with all of His wonderous power, bringing the rewards with Him..... nourishing us, holding us and gently leading us home!

Tuesdays IOW ~ Hosea 2:14

Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
Hosea 2:14



God calls His people out from the world, leading us out into the desert to a place that most would find desolate and full of only trials and hardships..... without comfort or hope. And it is there in that wilderness where God reaches for us, woos us to HIM by speaking tenderly to our hearts..... softening it, comforting it, assuring it and filling it with the vastness of hope only HE can provide. Showing us a dwelling place in the dessert filled with the wonderful bounty of HIS blessings and love reserved just for us. Look now on the next verse:

15 (ESV) And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

God will turn our valley of troubles into a door of hope.... transforming our trials into the hope of Christ Jesus. Oh how God loves us! Even though we have turned our backs on Him so often, He still would have us enter into His presence and to bestow all the wonderous blessings that He holds for us!

I know that in our lives God has brought us out to the wilderness to show us more of His great love for us as a family.... in the last couple of years God wooed us with tender and comforting talk in our lives... brought forth many blessings in our lives and brought us closer to Him. He has sent us wonderful Christian friends to help give us counsel, support and true bonds of love. He has caused Eric and myself to really start to bear each others burdens the way He intended for husbands and wives to do and has help us grow in Him as a family. He has shown us an abundance of work we are suited for to do for His Glory. And he has supplied each and every one of our NEEDS in our wanderings through the desert places.


Eze 34:25 -26 (NLT) "I will make a covenant of peace with them and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then my people will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. I will cause my people and their homes around my holy hill to be a blessing. And I will send showers, showers of blessings, which will come just when they are needed.

How wonderful are the promises of God..... and what a personal God He wants to be to us.... Look at all the verses ..... "I am now going to allure her"......"I will lead her".... "I will give her her" ...."I will make a covenant"... ."And I will send showers"......repeatedly He tells us that He will do it.... He wants His people to know He cares for them so much that He does the things He says He will do .... He does not send someone in His place.... He is the one taking care of us and all our needs!

Read more Tuesday's IOW's at Titus 2 Woman..... thanks Heather for hosting this week!

If I was a nut......

So, I found out I would be a peanut...... does it fit????

You Are A Peanut

You are popular, even with people who tend to have picky taste. Kids love you, as do dogs. From rednecks to snobs, most people have a place for you in their hearts. As popular as you are, there are some people who can't be near you. Don't take it too personally. There's just a few people you rub the wrong way.

What Nut Are You?

Wonderful Weekend

We had such a great weekend! After the boys had been down with ear infections nearly all week I was so glad to see them both feeling better by Friday. Friday night one of the girls friends from down the street came over to stay the night and they had a great time playing Clue all night. Then Saturday morning Eric, me and the two youngest went to get seed and plantlings (is that a word???) for the garden over in the next town at this great shop. We then stopped by one of the grocery stores we don't have here and shopped for some deals. After we got home and put away the groceries we tidied up a bit in anticipation of our company! My good friend Denita came for a sleepover with her children. Yeah!!!


Our congregation along with several others puts together an annual fish fry to raise money for a scholarship fund to help local graduates attend a Christian university and that was happening on Saturday evening... our older 2 children worked by serving and cleaning up (I had several from the community stop me when we got there to eat and tell me they would be glad to take them home if I ever got tired of them...... heehee). The fish was great! They also serve chicken strips, shrimp, and frog legs along with french fries, beans, slaw, gumbo, with drinks and dessert.... its all you can eat and it is simply good food!!!

After we had stuffed ourselves at the fish fry we all came back here at the house and watched movies, played games and talked.... such a wonderful time!!!

Sunday we had great services (David, our preacher, gave a wonderful sermon ..... both in class and during worship.) - David if you are reading this..... I for one don't mind 2 sermons...... preach on! - Then after services we all came back here for lunch.... grilled out hot dogs, hamburgers and some cheddar brats! Filled the afternoon with great fellowship with my wonderful , cannot believe we are not really sisters, friend Denita!!! In the late afternoon we had to say our goodbyes (I do believe I did pout just a bit....) and then it was time to gather all the kids to get ready for the evening services. Our congregation has 6 high school graduates this year... so we had a great celebration for them last night! David's sermon was great and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and good eats afterwards! By the time we came home we were all so very tired... Jed fell out in the middle of the living room floor sound asleep...... and the rest of us drifted off to bed at different times..... What a wonderful weekend!!!!

Friday's Fixin's

Sunburn Relief

With the sun coming out and us spending more time outside...... time for some remedies for those sunburns..... just the minor ones .... anything that blisters needs to be seen by your doctor...

Besides the commercial Aloe Vera gels available on the market here are a few home remedies we use around here......

(not a home remedy but this helps too! ) During the summer months we try to keep a large jar of the original Noxzema cleanser cream.... for those light burns this works wonders.... just rub it on the sunburn area and leave.... it quickly helps cool the burn.



Also try putting about 5 tea bags and some mint (a few sprigs of fresh is great) in a cheesecloth and let it steep in warm bathwater for a few minutes then just soak in the bath for a refreshing help to the burns.



Vinegar helps too.... soak a small towel or washrag in vinegar then place on the burn... .....this one may sting if the burn is a bit more severe...... however it does help take the burn out of the skin..... you can also put a cup of vinegar in a warm bath and soak to help relieve the sting. (I know this works from personal experience)

Living Simply vs. Simply Living

Do you live simply or are you simply living? Good question to ask many people today.... I guess what has me really asking this is a commercial I saw on the TV the other day.... it was an insurance commercial saying wherever you are in life we will be there with you, but how they brought about that message was...... a young business woman in a airport working away at her laptop.... she looks up into the camera and says something along the line of .... where my email inbox is out of control and I have not had a break since 3rd grade.... yeah, I'm there..... That just really hit me as being on of the saddest commercials I had ever seen..... sad because I know there are soooo many people out there living that life. They are so busy 'grabbing life by the horns' so to speak that they are really missing out on so much of life. Their life is just passing by in one big blur..... will they have any breathtaking life moments to look back upon and really say I lived life to the fullest? Oh, I have been there.... getting up rushing out to a job I really started not liking..... being in a rush to get all done in the afternoons.... rushing through a store bought dinner, the crazy mad dash through the kids homework, baths and bedtimes.... not enjoying any part of the day at all..... where is the living in that????

Now, I'm not saying we don't still have a few crazy days around here..... there are gonna be a few of those from time to time ,..... but I"m talking about learning to go back to a "back to basics" kinda life..... I mean do we really NEED to have our children involved in 5 different sports/dance/karate/afterschool programs and any of the many other things we can find for them to stay busy..... aren't we just teaching them to become so overrun with busyness that they will only see their life in a blur one day too?

I don't want my life or the life of any of my family to be like this.... we are learning to live more simply.... enjoy the little things in life.... and God has really blessed us with lots of help on this..... at least when you look at things from a blessings point of view..... let me explain:

For years Eric has suffered from migraines..... and in the last few years working at his previous employer they had only gotten much, much worse.... so much so that the employer had asked him to see a specialist... so he did.... yes, he does have true, very real migraines said the specialist... and had treated him with some different medications... but nothing was really helping... the migraines were getting worse.... and so much so that the employer let Eric go from the job he had held for many years..... now, most people would look at that and say ..... where is the blessing in all of that..... well, being off of work gave Eric the time he really needed to rejuvenate his body. ........ it lead us back here from where we had moved away..... and Eric now is in a job that is only about 5 minutes from home...... and is home early enough in the afternoons that he is able to enjoy time with us. I am still able to be at home, and one of the best things is...... Eric's migraines have all but gone away..... where he was having 5 or more a month..... he has only had a handful in the past year!!!!

Saying all of that ...... yes, Eric took a paycut with this new job.... we do struggle financially but we are looking into ways to make it work. Perhaps a small home business or a part time job perhaps.... we are waiting to see what God leads us to..... but we also have a new home we are living in.... we have a great support system of family and friends. And we feel that in our simple lifestyle God has blessed us so very abundantly.!!!!!

Living simply does in no way mean to forgo everything...... but it does mean to simplify your life so that you do have time to count your blessings..... and to see the blessings come where you least expect them.


Pro 10:22 (NLT) The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.