always running behind

I know I haven't posted in forever.... haven't y'all figured out yet that I'm always behind and so far behind that I'll spend the rest of my life trying to get caught up! There have been busy spells since I last posted during one of those we were able to be in several revival meetings and wonderful fellowship meetings at other churches in our area and it was such a tremendous blessing just to go in and fellowship with the Lord's people and pull up a seat and just feast on His word! It made for a couple of super busy weeks where things at home got farther behind but it was well worth it.

We're busy now trying to get ready for winter. With a few nights down in the 30's and no oil to run the furnace with we are doing everything we can to try and make it easier to stay warm in this house. I got a big roll of plastic and for the first time since the kids were babies we are going "hillbilly" and putting plastic on the windows. Troy and the boys have been looking on the back lot for trees that we can cull out and use for firewood too. I'm praying for a warmer than average winter, the news keeps on reporting that heating oil is going to be at an all time high.... so NOT what we needed to hear!

In our efforts to get ready for winter we are also trying to get everything ready for all the critters to stay as warm and healthy as possible through the cold months. The chickens need another house built, the bunnies need a couple of cages put up and cloth wrapped over the sides and back to block the wind and the bees needed a better spot to be in where they could get more light. Well, we are working on the chicken shelter and the bunnies.

This morning we ran out to try to move the bees and almost panicked over how crabby those bees were! I've never seen the bees react to us the way they did today..... even now they are still angrily buzzing all around the house as if they are out there just daring us to try to come outside! Everyone but me got stung, Taeler got several stings and Jared got one on his ear.... Caleb thought he was in the clear until he went out to water the chickens and got stung on the chin and one time in his hair. I hope I don't get stung!!! The Lord has been so sweet to allow me to go this long with no stings and it has truly been an answer to prayers.... bee stings make me sick and with the NCS a sting could send me into a period of fainting spells and illness that I just really don't want to deal with.

The other news in our family is that my mom is coming to visit! We have been feverishly cleaning and sorting and de-cluttering the house to try to make it company ready. Secretly I've been in terrible fear that mom will show up and be so disgusted by my house that she refuses to stay. My baby brother is also coming and possibly my oldest son too. I'm so excited! I haven't seen my family in almost 3 years so this is great news.

Anyway, I'm off to get back to work. Hopefully I'll get more of a chance to post soon.

How Sweet!

The Lord is so wonderfully sweet to me! I've been so homesick for my friends and family but especially for my special group of friends that me and the hunk o' honey loving call "The Little Old Lady Brigade". I have missed these ladies and so many times over the last few years I've even been reduced to tears of longing for those Tuesday morning bible study meetings and the monthly prayer meetings that we had. I've managed to stay in touch with all of these sweet women though and today I received one of the sweetest letters I've ever gotten in my life from my dear friends telling me that they miss me too.

For those of you who don't already know the Little Old Lady Brigade is the group of women from our old church back home ..... and no, they don't mind me calling them that name because they aren't ashamed of their age. In our old church there were only a few families who weren't in their "senior" years and I quickly found it to be a real blessing that the Lord worked it out that way. I was fortunate to benefit from the wisdom and experience of those sweet older ladies and still I often crave the fellowship that we all had together over God's word and in prayer. We got together one morning a week for bible study and fellowship and it was a true blessing to be able to just gather together that way and words just can't describe how much I miss having that time of fellowship in my life now. We also gathered one evening a month for a ladies prayer meeting that was all the ladies of the church, the ladies who wanted to and who lived closer together like me and Mrs. Willie would often grab a few minutes of time here and there to pray together as well. These meetings were not for socializing or visiting but were time set apart for the women to gather and study and pray. I learned so much during those times and during some of the most difficult times of my life it was those meetings and the support of those ladies that really made the difference in how I weathered the storms.

I have to say too that I never have met a group of people who were so willing to commit themselves to service! Every month the ladies took on a new service project. As we would near the holiday season the monthly projects were usually making gifts or quilts or packages to send to our missionary families. Other projects were love baskets to be taken to shut ins or the nursing home residents or to needy families. We often had work days at the church too and sometimes those would turn out to be the most fun days of all. I was always amazed at the amount of work the ladies were able to do and how much fun we had doing it together.

We had other things for the ladies too that the Little Old Lady Brigade got started like trading meals day. We would all cook and freeze three different meals and three different desserts and then get together and trade them. It was a really great way to share not only our favorite recipes but to make sure that there were always meals ready in the freezer for those days when time ran short. It was so simple to do and a lot of fun too. We had clothing swaps, book swaps, and even dishes swaps for the ladies to participate in too. There were crafting days, sewing days, cleaning days and trade a chore days (my favorite) for anyone who wanted to participate. Those ladies may have been farther on in years than I was but they had no tolerance for laziness or things that were frivolous wastes of time (I'll never forget the shopping lecture).

Well, that's enough rambling from me for now. I was just tickled to bits that the ladies thought of me and it made me miss them so much all over again!

Already?!!

It just doesn't seem right! It's bad enough that I'm now a full head shorter than my little preacher boy but now he is less than a week away from being a real honest to goodness {gasp, sputter, sigh} *TEENAGER*! They just grow way too fast to suit me, it seems like yesterday he was born and seemed so small and helpless, now on my weaker days he holds me up with strong arms while we do the chores together. It seems like just yesterday that I couldn't get him to eat hardly anything and worried that he would be skinny and sickly from poor nutrition, but now I can't fill him up and he eats constantly, and he is strong and healthy too. It seems like just yesterday that he just couldn't quite get the hang of reading and now I can't keep him from reading everything he can get his hands on. It seems like just yesterday that he was 3 years old and still had not said one single word and I was terrified that he would not be able to speak for some reason. It seems like just yesterday that I was a freshly saved 24 year old girl expecting baby number 3 and begging the Saviour I had only begun to trust to please save this child that was growing inside me and use him for HIS glory.

I get overwhelmed when I think of the blessings my children are to me. They don't get into trouble or give me any grief about their schooling and most importantly they all have a heart for the Lord. Just last night they all sat with me and their Daddy in the livingroom as a brother in the Lord was telling us how he desires to see his own children begin to really grow in the Lord and to seek Him out on their own.... what a blessing when my little preacher boy started testifying about how the Lord became real in his own life and how that is what drove him to begin seeking the Lord for himself and stop trying to live off of the faith of the people around him. It's a true blessing that I just can never find the words for that I am able to hear my son give glory to God in little ways and big ways on a day to day basis!

I'm even beginning to appreciate the fact that the preacher boy was called to preach. Believe me, I know how awful it sounds but I did not want any of my boys to be preachers and did all that I could to discourage any such thoughts. It's not that I have anything against preachers or that I think poorly of the good men who are called of God to preach his word in any way...... it's just that all these years I've raised these sons *I've* had my own set of plans for them and how they should grow up and live life. Petty of me huh. I had always encouraged the boys to pursue things that interested them and learn as much as possible about those things so that later on their lives they would be fit to make a decent living for their families doing something that they loved.

Jared had always said that he wanted to go to a good college and study fire science and criminal justice and become a police officer and work in the fire service too and gradually work his way up to arson investigation. I was so proud of him for having such a good plan and for knowing what it would take to fulfill that set of goals and I did all I could to encourage him to continue to pursue that course ..... all the way up until the night he came stumbling down the hallway with tears running down his little cheeks and told us that the Lord had been speaking to him and that he had been ignoring what was being said but that he just couldn't do that anymore because he had to preach and try to reach folks for Jesus. Me being the hardheaded idiot that I was at the time told him to stop crying and go back to bed that I didn't want to hear such nonsense and how in the world did he think he could preach when he was too shy to even say the pledge of alliegence in front of the people in our family back home. Bless his heart, all he would say is "I love you momma but the Lord told me to preach".... he told his Daddy and they talked to our Pastor and that was the end of that. But now here we are two years later and I couldn't appreciate my son any more than I do now and I have been so blessed to see the Lord use him and to watch him grow in the Lord and to begin to mature a bit in his preaching. There are lots of things in my life that I regret but not many of them more than the way I reacted when the Lord called Jared to preach.

I wonder now and then what the Lord has planned for my boy. I confess that I used to worry about it.... you know what his life will be like in a world that hates preachers who stick by the old ways and follow the true word of God and who do their best to live out what they believe. I'm so glad that our Lord is faithful to take care of his own and that when those times come on me and I wonder or worry that in some way whether it's something small or something big the Lord will show me that he will take care of the boy who is really only mine for a little while but is HIS for eternity. What an awesome and fearsome thought, that me and my hunk o' honey are in charge of raising this young man up but that he truly belongs to the Lord and not us at all! The years have flown by and I know that I probably haven't got many left to have this boy with me all the time. That's just enough all by itself to make this old tired mama's heart break a little bit every day but the blessing of who this boy is becoming more than makes up for the pain of watching him grow a step farther from me everyday!

There ya go Mrs. Willie, all the stuff I can't say without crying about our boy that we prayed over so many times in your livingroom floor on that old prayer rug! God is faithful, and He heard every word we said! HE grew our boy up strong and tall and sweet natured just like you would always ask, and HE grew him up filled with love and joy and a desire to serve HIM just like we asked! Ain't God Good!!!! Let's keep on praying and seeking God for all our young ones.

And that's enough babbling for me today..... I've got a birthday meal to plan.

Failure to thrive

This must be my week for very long very late night phone conversations! Actually those phone calls are such sweet answers to prayers I've made, it's been a true blessing to talk to and visit with those people that I miss so much back home! Why late at night you ask ..... well, because we all have lots of kids and/or responsibilities that keep us running and frazzled all day long everyday plus church, work, and all of the other day to day stuff that causes us to be so out of touch from time to time with folks we love and don't live near.

My heart has been so very very heavy for such a long time because I get so homesick for my "people". I miss my family and my friends something terrible! I haven't seen them in nearly 2 1/2 years now, not for a vacation or a holiday or even for those once in a lifetime very special events that I never in a million years would have thought I would miss. As I was telling my brother last night, I've missed my son's high school graduation, my daughter giving birth to both of my grand-daughters, my youngest brother's high school graduation and leaving home, all of my family's regular holiday gatherings and celebrations etc along with so many other major events and it's just hard sometimes to be so far away.... and it hurts. But the Lord has been so good to me to put me on the hearts of those who I love and to give me the time to just sit back and relax and enjoy a good long visit on the phone with several of them!

Anyway, after I finally got off the phone and most of the night last night as I talked to the Lord about all that is weighing on me lately something came to mind and it just kind of got stuck there so I thought I would sort of write/ramble about it here for a bit to get it out of my head.

When I was in nursing school (seems like a lifetime ago now) in our pediatrics units we learned about a condition found in little babies and sometimes young children that they called Failure to Thrive. It's when a child just sort of whithers away with no obvious cause, they aren't necessarily cranky kids or whiny, they just stop wanting to grow it seems. Slowly that not growing turns into a sort of shrinking, they lose weight, they become listless ... sometimes even too listless to cry when they have a need or are in pain.

Right before your eyes that little person just quietly and slowly dies, a bit at a time and almost silently. During that most crucial time of life when normally they would grow more than at any other time of life period, a child with failure to thrive will lose weight instead of the normal double or tripling of their birth weight, eventually their height (stature) is affected, they will in time become disinterested in their surroundings, miss developmental milestones like sitting walking talking etc, possibly they become irritable and withdrawn and begin to develop a dislike of contact with other people.

Sometimes there is a medical condition at the root of the problem but frequently the parents or caregivers of the child are the cause of the problem. An instructor told us (as we stood in the pediatric ICU with a baby who was dying) that in children with failure to thrive due to medical conditions they will quickly begin to improve with treatment, but that the most persistent cases of failure to thrive were considered nearly untreatable. The instructor said that in the most severe and persistent cases the problems are caused by the parents, sometimes they abuse the child or neglect to care for the child properly, sometimes the parents suffer from mental illnesses and that affects the child's health. But, we were told, many times the root of the problem was simply that the family situation was just too chaotic for the baby to receive proper feeding and nurturing, the lack of routine blunted the child's appetite, and inadequate parenting exacerbated the decline in the child's health overall along with their emotional development.

In short the instructor told us that babies just KNOW when they are loved and that those babies will fight to get well. The worst cases, the ones that just never got well were the little ones who simply didn't receive enough love, children who simply felt no strong ties or bonds with anyone who cared about them. Isn't it amazing that such tiny and young little people instinctively know when they aren't loved!

As I talked with the Lord last night and this thought was put in my mind it began to sink into my sleep deprived brain that if a very young child has that instinct and that just the knowledge at whatever level of their awareness is enough to kill them, what must it do to the heart of a lost and dying sinner to hear over and over that Jesus loves them yet never truly see His love manifested around them? What must it do to the heart of those very young babes in Christ to instinctively know that the people in the family of God secretly (or not) reject them? What must it do to that hurting brother or sister in the Lord to feel isolated from the rest of the flock? What must it do to the soul of the wounded believer who is terrified to trust the brethren enough to ask for prayer or help? I could go on for a really long time but I think you get the point.

I believe that the failure to thrive phenomena is alive and well in our churches today, not only do I believe it but I know that I have seen it. I have seen first hand fresh young newly saved faces turned into withered and slumped shouldered figures wandering farther and farther away from the house of the Lord fleeing the pain of rejection and criticism. I have seen first hand lost sinners declare that they want nothing to do with a God whose people are filled with such venom and mean-ness. I have seen time and again people who were truly seeking salvation and wanted nothing more than to see one true Christian to help them believe that they truly do exist. And I believe that just as many times it's the parents and caregivers who cause failure to thrive in children, it is the sister who speaks in scorn and condemnation or the brother who can't find the balance between hating the sin and loving the sinner, it is the lack of compassion and love for one another that is causing failure to thrive in our churches.

People we have to do something different, we have got to learn to reach out a hand to those who are drowning in the filth of the world and show them the love of Christ. Sinners don't need to see another fake Christian full of well memorized platitudes and simple one line quick responses, they need to see that the God we serve loved us enough to make us able to love them! I realize that it's tough but we cannot let the need continue to go unmet. Just like to save a child suffering from failure to thrive you have to be willing to give that child all the love and attention and affection they need all the time and work to build their trust we have got to work to show the lost that there is such a thing as love and compassion and that grace and mercy are more than just pretty words.

Ready?

My friend Mindy sent me the link to this video and I just had to share it here. I know that for some it is way over the top, and it isn't my aim or intention to offend anyone. The point of the video is so well stated at the end though. We should be willing to die to self and to die for Jesus if necessary. So many of us though live our lives from day to day watching folks like the "bad guy" in the video walk on by on their way to hell for eternity and we are unwilling to tell them about Jesus. The reasons are as many and as varied as we are individual but if were are really ready to die for Jesus, or to die to self, wouldn't we be more able to set aside the silly differences that we have within the brethren? Wouldn't we be more able to withstand the "embarrasment" of telling a stranger about a Saviour who loves them? This video really made us just take a minute and think about so much.... so are you ready?

Striking a balance

I know, I've been absent again. It's been busy around here for quite awhile. Truth be told I prefer to be busy, not busy as in running around being away from the home that the Lord has blessed me with but busy as in taking care of the abundant blessings that the Lord has provided. It's so easy sometimes when we get busy with our homes and children and taking care of our husbands to see those things as simply duties or even sometimes as burdens, but in truth they are blessings and I am truly blessed abundantly.

The real challenge for me and so many of my friends back home that I talk to is trying to get a sense of balance in how life is lived, from the daily chores to raising up our children the struggle is to find that fine line of balance between simply doing what must be done and living the life that we should be living. Forgive me while I ramble, late night talks with my friend Mindy generally cause lots of brain stirring. Last night one of the things we talked about how in some homes the focus is so much on discipline and not at all on the love of our Saviour, to the point that the children see nothing but a God of wrath to fear rather than a God who loved us all so much that He gave His own son.

It breaks my heart to hear people refer to their children as monsters or to see folks treat children as burdens, whether or not the words are ever said in the ear shot of that child, he/she is well aware of the feelings generated toward them.... how unfair for that child. For any child, the way that they see their parents is the same way that they will see the Lord. If they have an unbalanced view of authority or criticism in their relationship with their parents often that unbalanced view will carry over into their relationship with the Lord. How scary a thought, that my kids will have a relationship with the Lord (at least in their young years) that is similar to their relationship with me. If they only respond to me because it's been drilled into their heads under threat of punishment that may be the only link they see between them and Jesus, the threat of punishment. It's so sad to me to think that some people would only respond to the Lord because they fear punishment! But there is a good example of one of the kinds of balance that Mindy and I were talking about.

We talked too about striking a balance in your work, rest and recreation. Back home there are lots of Amish communities and you see children as young as 2 who get up and work all day right alongside their parents with little to no time for play or to rest other than the rest that their young bodies MUST have. Some of the farm families back home are run similarly, with lots of kids helping out on the farm the chores go faster I'm sure. Then we moved out here and so many kids have no chores at all and view work as something that only parents have to do. Now I admit that at different times I've been on both sides of this with my kids. I believe that now we have a pretty decent balance in this area. Mindy was telling me about one of her neighbors who literally doesn't do any of the work around her house other than to prepare meals, the rest of the house chores including all of the duties of caring for younger siblings is left to the children (ages 14 months to 12 years).

*Personally I think that's outrageous, I believe it is the parents responsibility to train the children by working alongside them and leading by example, not sitting at the computer or reading a book, or going out shopping or "running errands" while children go from chore to chore training the younger children as they go. That's just my opinion by the way, but I will add that the Lord commanded the parents to teach and train their children, not to teach and train one of two of their children and then live a life of relative leisure that the children will resent them for (either silently in obedience out of fear of punishment or in outright rebellion misbehaving every time they are out of sight) while those first few kids raise the rest of the family brood dutifully. My kids all work, and they work hard, but we work together as a family and each pull our fair share and along the way we have each learned from the others strengths and weaknesses. Troy and I wanted our kids to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will not require from them any more or any less than what we require from ourselves and we have found that in return the kids are much more respectful of our authority than they were before. We wanted to gain respect without getting resentment and so far we have a healthy and strong relationship with all of our kids.*

Me and Mindy talked about balance in our witness too. I was so thankful for a song that some of our ladies sang in last nights service! I was about showing the world the love of Christ and how impossible it is to do that if you never touch those who are lost. I don't necessarily mean physically touching them but if you are a stone wall of judgement and critical condemnation with an attitude or expression of such distaste and lacking compassion for the sinner you are trying to reach then you are simply another one of "those Christians" who have so successfully shut out the very people that Jesus has commanded us to reach. It's probably the most difficult balance to reach, to be able to love the sinner enough to show them the light and the love of Jesus without leaving them feeling as though you have never met the God who loved you so much in your own filthy lost and sinful condition that he gave His own son's blood for your salvation!

I confessed to Mindy that I have really struggled with that so much myself. I see so many kids the ages of my own running around half dressed with disrespectful attitudes and trashy friends and habits, the 'mommy bear with claws' part of me wants to flog those kids to keep them far away from my own children but the woman who has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus in me cries out for the Holy Spirit to speak to the hearts of those poor lost kids and to help me to love them despite their appearances and rough talk.

How easy it is for the flesh to look at someone who is covered in their sin and call out "hey, you're dirty" instead of realizing that the dirt is also in their eyes preventing them from being able to see how dirty they really are, how easy to sit from our clean little perch on the tower of high and mighty and remember that once we were just as dirty and disgusting as they are now. Maybe some folks think that by behaving in such a critical way they cast enough shadow over their current imperfections as to hide those flaws that remain.

I hate remembering where I was when Jesus found me and took me in, but at the same time I have to remember not only where I was but how I was reached. I wasn't reached with a condemning look or a scornful frown, those would only have served to keep me running away from the very one who could save me. What got my attention and made me stop running was the faithful witness who showed me the joy they have in the Love of the Lord, that person who took the time out of their busy life to care about me enough to be real despite who and what I was and where I was at that drew me to salvation. I have to remember because remembering makes me think of how much I should care for those who need what I have already been given instead of taking for granted what I have and using it as an excuse to look down my nose at someone so desperately in need. I have to remember because once upon a time I was one of those aimlessly wandering, half dressed, disrespectful, mean mouthed, lying, thieving, conniving, trashy kids too ....... and all I needed was to find the love of Jesus to fill that void that was trying to fill up with the lusts of my flesh and the false love that the world wraps up so prettily.

After all of that talking I was telling Mindy about a preaching tape that I had been listening to not that long ago. One of our young preachers at church (who also happens to be the kids' Sunday School teacher) was preaching and he said something that really stood out to me. He was saying that we really needed to be careful of what we say, especially in front of our children and especially about visitors to our church and about other people in our church (that's not all he said but I'm not into transcribing sermons). He was saying that as parents we are molding how our children will witness, how they will live for the Lord and serve in the local church.... he made the point that our kids will take to heart what we say so when a visitor who is lost and full of the world walks through the doors of our church do the kids hear "oh my... did you see what they were wearing, how awful, blah blah blah" or did the kids hear us welcome that person into the Lord's house and hear us treat that person with all the compassion that we should have for the lost? He was also saying that we have to carefully guard what we say about our Pastor and the other people in the church for the same reason.... our kids will repeat what we say and do in their own lives.... there again, we train them by example, if the kids see us criticizing sister so an so for what she wears or what she says or who she hangs out with how on earth can that child be protected from then growing their very own critical spirit?.... Anyway, it was a good preaching tape and not just that particular preacher but that part was applicable to the rest of what I'm saying in this post.

Mindy and I were talking about that tape because we were also talking about balancing how you care for your church family. I was relating to her a struggle that I'm having (which I won't go into here for obvious reasons) in coping with a few things in that vein. I'll just say that folks should be more careful what they say about people in their churches, it's amazing how easily folks get hurt by gossip or judgemental statements or criticisms that get tossed around.Sometimes even just a critical expression or questioning statement is all it takes to upset someone else on the behalf of the person being criticized! Mindy's church has lost several families recently because an ugly remark was passed about one of the ladies there and after several months it got back to the lady who the remark was made about. That lady didn't leave the church but several families who were very upset by the way that lady was treated did leave. I won't go into whether or not I think any of what actually happened is right or wrong but people, please watch what you say, be very careful about criticizing how someone else chooses to live their life. You don't know what the whole story is in someone else's life and are not fit to judge!

We talked lots about striking a balance in our finances too. Troy and I are both trying so hard to recover from years and years of trying to climb out of debt and I'll tell you that I know first hand how hard it is to make those dollars stretch as far as they need to sometimes. Thankfully we have nearly paid off ALL of the debt we carried, all that we have left are 2 very small credit accounts and our student loans (which will be a long time in repayment). It isn't easy to scrimp and pinch and always feel like you are struggling and behind, especially with kids because you always want to do more for them or do better for them, but it is very worth doing to teach them to manage their money properly while they are young.

Troy and I picked up a couple of Larry Burkett's money management books at a thrift store and we will use them in our family bible study time with the kids to teach them the importance of managing our money and the principles of stewardship. Honestly I get kind of mad sometimes when I see people complain about not having enough money and then demonstrate truly poor stewardship of their finances. Just to be clear, I realize that there is a huge difference between poor stewardship and a family going through a hard time financially! Troy and I have struggled so long over poor financial decisions that we made when were very young, very lost and very untaught about money and budgeting and such thing so we want to do all we can now to make sure that our kids understand how important it is to have money in the proper perspective in their lives now. Hopefully with some proper instruction and lots of prayer the kids will learn to balance their finances from the beginning and avoid the trap of chasing the dollar all their lives.

I could go on and on like Mindy and I did on the phone (we hadn't had a chance to talk in quite awhile) but I'm sure you are already bored. I should be able to post more often as the summer draws closed and fall sets in. Things around here will get more into a regular routine and a little less busy as the days get shorter. I'm so thankful for the busy seasons that we've had though. I'm so blessed to have so much to do that is meaningful and not just an empty activity to fill the days and pass the time! Take care everyone, I'll post again soon I hope.

Fred's brand new 20 year old quilt

Fred is so tickled to finally have it finished! I started working on that quilt nearly 20 years ago as something to do while on bedrest expecting Joshua (who turns 19 next month). I finished the top when Josh was a year old, every single stitch by hand and it's the first thing I ever pieced together from scratch. Jessi's first ever stitches are in that quilt too, she just wanted to help so I let her make a square for it. Originally I was making it for Jessi, that's who picked out the outrageously bright yellow and some of the flaming bright patterns in the quilt. But as she got older her preferences for colors changed and so did her taste in bed clothes and she didn't want it anymore so it got packed away in a box for a long time.

When Troy and I had Fred there were open shelves in our room and I hated the look of them so the quilt top hung over them as a curtain for awhile. Troy decided that he really really didn't like that bright yellow and he never wanted me to finish putting it together for our home so back into the box it went for another long time.

Finally close to Christmas of 2004 I was sorting through boxes of stuff in the attic and Fred saw the quilt top and fell in love with it. She asked me to put it together for her for Christmas that year..... well, life happened that year and ran over me and I just couldn't get it done but I did get a good start on it again. I kept working on it a bit at a time all by hand and was so frustrated with the slow pace of it that I put it up again.

Awhile back I had asked someone how to do machine quilting with a regular old sewing machine. I honestly had no idea it was possible to do that (that's how much of a sewing dummy I am). Finally I just pulled the poor old quilt out again and started on it, it took me less than 5 hours to finish it and bind it. It started out large enough to be oversized on a queen sized bed, but after realizing that I had hand stitched almost half of it with the backing and batting crooked it is now just right for a twin size daybed just like Fred's.


This is not Fred's bed, I just tossed the quilt over the sofa to get a better picture of it. Fred's happy with it so I guess it's not too terrible for a first ever mostly handstitched quilt. I'm just glad that now I can say I finished the whole thing.... and maybe start on another quilt someday. My friend Angela has gotten me hooked on this idea of strip quilting because it's supposed to be faster and even a sewing dummy like me can do it.... though I have my doubts. What you don't see on this one is the back, that's because all of the mistakes are so obvious there .... especially the one where I sewed the front to the back and was too tired to rip out the stitches so I just cut that part of the front off and left it there. Oh well, Fred likes it so that's okay too.

I just wanted to share this picture because I like it. We have always called Caleb "bugs" because somehow or the other he manages to make friends with them all the time. The other day this poor little butterfly would not leave him alone, it kept perching on his shoulder and in his hair and no matter what he was doing it just hung on to him. He decided it was too hot outside for the butterfly and brought it inside with him. He fed it honey off of his finger and gave it water in a thimble and let it sleep in his hat in his bedroom. That little butterfly was a house pet for a couple of days before I made Caleb take it back outside. That's just how things happen around here sometimes.

Well, I'm off of here for now to get some of my work done around the house. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I HAVE ONE!!!

A real honest to goodness measured amounts included recipe!!! Actually, I have two of them.... I'm so tickled! Okay, okay, I know I'm making a really big deal of it, but in all honesty I rarely have them. I kind of cook "on the fly" usually and rarely do I bother myself to actually measure things out but I've done it a few times to perfect these two recipes and I love them just like they are now. I'm so happy to finally have actually written down recipes that I thought I would just go ahead and post them on here. I've been meaning to do it for awhile now but being the frog in the frying pan has kept me.... well hoppin' (hahahahaha sorry, couldn't help myself). Anyway, here ya go.

My favorite granola bars
These are sweet but not sugary, in fact there is no sugar added to them! Plus they have yummy good for ya stuff in them too. They don't sound like they would be good at all but they are highly addictive! Don't say I didn't warn you.

1 1/2 cup honey (no it doesn't have to be purple, but mine is!)
1 1/2 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth, I don't care)
5 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup grated carrots
3/4 cup coconut

In a large pan ( used my dutch oven) over low heat melt together the peanut butter and honey then take it off the heat and add everything else. Stir it all together and let it cool until you can comfortably handle it. Press it all firmly and evenly into the bottom of a baking pan ( I used my big cookie sheet/jelly roll pan). Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. Taaa Daaaa, you now have the yummiest absolutely healthy food you can make and it's so easy to make that you can write down the instructions and have one of the kids make them and call it school ...... reading comprehension ya know. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking that it can't taste good and have carrots in it, but you never even know they are in there! Go ahead and try it you big chicken.... I double dare ya!

*Notes*
You can make these with almost any ingredients added to the honey, peanut butter and oats. For example, dried cherries instead of raisins, or dried apricots or blueberries. You could also opt for the not quite so healthy version and use chocolate chips instead of dried fruit. I'll save the chocolate for cookies though.


Honey Balls
This is turning into one of our favorite snacks! I like these so much that I just might even start buying an occasional box of corn flakes just so we can keep having them.

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup crushed cereal ( I used corn flakes, but just about any of it would work)

Mix together the honey and peanut butter til smooth, then gradually stir in the powdered milk. Put it in the fridge because it's lots easier to handle when it's chilled. Butter your hands and then make bunches of little balls with the "dough". Roll each little ball in crushed cereal and chill until their firm.

*Notes*
We've tried this with 1 tsp of cinnamon in the dough and I really enjoyed it that way. We've also added chocolate chips and used coconut flakes instead of cereal but I felt guilty about the chocolate and went back to the cereal. I've considered crushing dried banana chips to roll the balls in, but I don't have any of those on hand right now.


Well, there ya have it, my first real recipes!! I've been trying to make a recipe book for my daughter to use with my sweet and beautiful little granddaughters so most of the cooking I'm working on is really kid friendly. Of course the "experts" will tell you that you should not give honey to a child under the age of 1, I'm not saying that I agree with the "experts" but I thought I should mention that.

I'm off to finish working on supper now. I hope everyone is having a good week so far.

Purple Honey and the Frog in the Frying Pan

This is our wonderful, exotic, rare and extra super yummy Purple Honey!!! We had never heard of purple honey and initially wondered if something terrible was wrong with our bees. Now that we have had time to research the matter and (most importantly) taste the honey we're only sorry that there isn't more of it!! This is by far my favorite honey ever, it has such a smooth taste and a sweetness that I've never had in honey of any kind in any of the places I've ever had honey. Being a lifelong honey consumer I've developed quite a taste for certain types of honey but now I believe I'm ruined..... there just aren't any that taste like this stuff.

It took us quite awhile to figure out what is going on with our honey and the truth of the matter is that no one really knows for sure. There are several theories as to what it is that is causing it but regardless of what the correct theory is it is very rare and only occurs in this little part of the world where I live. The kids and I just feel so blessed that after all the studying and working and heartbreaks we have had with the bees and all of the things we know we have yet to go through in our first year we were given such a special experience as our purple honey.

I haven't posted in awhile, and this post is going to be too short to catch anyone up on life around here. As usual; lately I'm feeling a little like a frog in a frying pan. There just always seems to be too much going on for me to stay in any one place very long and as a result everything is either waiting to be done, be started or is half done and waiting to be finished. I start and end every day at a dead out run and still only get a tiny portion of what I need to do for my family finished! It's kind of discouraging to work so hard and see so little progress ya know? It's not like I'm sleeping in and sitting around doing nothing, I'm up no later than 6:30 and it's usually closer to 5 or 5:30. I don't get to bed until 11:30 or 12 and most often it's 12:30 or 1 before my head hits the pillow.

We are schooling every day that we can just trying to get all caught up and in that process do what we need to do for this year's schooling. (shhh, don't tell but the kids still haven't taken their yearly tests) I sometimes catch myself wishing that schooling was still like it was when the kids were in the lower grades and it could all be done in the car while going down the road or at home in 45 minutes a day. The reality is that upper middle grades and high school just take more time and it has to be time without distractions. We usually get all sorts of distractions plus the one day a week that we set aside for errands and library runs so we are doing good if we get two full days of school crammed into our week right now. The kids are even getting grumpy that we aren't spending enough time in school!!!

We work in the garden for about an hour every morning... well, not just the garden. More like the garden, the dogs, the doves, the chickens and picking up around the yard. Then there's the bees. We lost Jared's hive after letting ourselves get tricked into thinking they were out of the woods and that was all it took to determine to be more diligent in taking care of the bees. This time of year a good beekeeper should most likely be checking on the bees at least every 2-3 weeks and in a hive that has had any problems at all it should be 1-2 weeks or 7-10 days. Well, all of our hives have either had problems or been split to aid ailing hives so we should be in the hives at least every week and a half for now..... Jared's hive died after we had not been in it for lack of time in over 3 weeks.

We are still fighting the flea battle, but I have come to the conclusion that I may do better in my efforts to kill the fleas by hurling all of my hunk o honey's paycheck directly at them rather than tossing it into the flea "killing" sprays and powders that are only accomplishing giving me a headache and taking up my grocery budget.

There are plenty of great and wonderful things going on around here too though. The bees made us some purple honey, the garden is giving us lots of squash and beans and some tomatoes and cucumbers and a watermelon a few peppers and a cantelope. I'm sure it would have done more if I had taken better care of it but you know .... I'm the frog in the frying pan so the garden is full of weeds now, and bugs and some kind of blight killing off my plants.

Anyway, the kids are trying to decide whether or not to sell any of their purple honey and how much to charge for it if they do. I'm trying my best to just keep up but I always feel like I'm only falling further behind. And now I'm late starting supper so that we can make it to a revival meeting on time tonight!!! See ya.

HELP!!!! We have fleas!!!

And they are biting me!!! I hate fleas I hate them I hate them!!! This is the first time in I don't know how many years we have ever had a flea problem and boy oh boy do we have a flea problem! My poor little dog is miserable, the big dog is miserable and the cat is gonna be really miserable as soon as I can catch him and throw him into a flea bath too!

Please pray that we are able to get rid of them quickly! I'm off to steam my carpets and put chemicals (yuck, double yuck and YUCK) on my poor little infested critters and then take a long long long hot shower and pretend that I'm flea proof. Did I say I hate fleas?