Have fun doing right!

Doing right is fun!  As we talked over dinner last night about fasting from unkind words we had some good laughs!  Now don't get me wrong, we don't normally sit around and really 'butcher' people but we can easily become lax and not guard our tongues the way Jesus would want us to.  While discussing it this is what I heard:  (totally in jest, of course!)  "Can I have one good round yet before we start?",  "Well, I normally get low blood sugar when I fast, so I probably shouldn't do this;  it might give me low blood sugar.",  and while cleaning up, "Oops, I can't say what I was about to say."  And then some rewording of words when an unkind remark was about to be said.  Have fun doing right!

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart....

JR left this morning to help his parents drive home from PA.  They have been gone for the summer so we all look forward to them coming home again!  We can hardly believe it is almost October already and we are loving the feel of fall in the air! 

School is going good.  We are studying some very interesting subjects and if we stay right at it we are normally done in two hours (sometimes more).  What a privilege to be involved in your children's education.  At their ages it is quite easy to do school with them and as you can see "Riley" loves to be close by while they school! 



Note Riley's nest in the back!  Pathetic, I know!





All done!


While JR is gone for several days I am freezing and canning some chicken.  InterCity Meats has boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale this week for $1.52 a pd.   My dear mother and sister usually gift me every year with a box or two of canned chicken (which we appreciate so much) but I feel rather guilty for not canning it myself so "city girl" decided to try to do it herself.  After numerous phone calls to them to make sure I am doing it right, a canner is now cooking away and several packages are in the freezer.  Our family loves chicken fixed in multiple ways so we were happy with ICM's sale.

We are still working hard, in our spare time (whatever that is), on our camper.  The inside is improving but still has a ways to go.  The upholstery on the benches around the table was in pretty bad shape so I re-upholstered them....turned out okay but I am glad I don't have to make a living at upholstery.  JR had to move the kitchen cabinets around abit to make them all work together and that is looking nice.  The bottom set needs redone really bad, too, but that will have to wait for a later date and until it can fit in the budget.

We are hoping to take it on a 'trial run' before our church campout weekend.

In our youth girls' Bible Study and our Ladies' Discipleship Class we have been talking about "Assurance of Salvation" and "Profession of Salvation".  We are looking particularly at I John and the evidences of salvation he mentions there.  God certainly left no room for 'hating' a Christian brother or sister and has some pretty strong words to describe those who do. (liar, murderer at heart, walking in darkness, not in truth)  While none of us would ever admit we 'hate' someone, we often justify our feelings/words by saying we love the person, we just don't like how they act.  Sometimes we say unkind things that hurt way down deep inside.  It makes me wonder if our words sometimes fall under God's category of 'hate'. 
I was further challenged by our SS Lesson this Sunday:  Strife and quarreling often divided God's people and ruined their testimony to the ungodly.  As someone once said, "Many people will never listen to what any believer says because of what some believers are." 
And our SS verse:  "And Abram said unto Lot,  Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee; and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we are brethren."

I am challenging myself to a fast from any unkind words about anyone.  Can I do a 30-day fast?  (I know it needs to last much longer than 30 days, but 30 days will be a good start.) 

 Anyone want to join me?

Ah, Florida Sunsets

Last evening we enjoyed the beauty of our gorgeous Florida sunsets!  Why don't we take the time to go see them more often?

....add some food and friends......ah!

Little Esther

and McKenzie enjoying the sand and water!

What Causes Great Nations to Fall?

In our Wisdom Books (homeschool) we are currently studying about some once great and powerful civilizations that have disappeared.  What happened that caused these civilizations to crumble, fall, and disappear?  The one we are currently studying is the Inca Civilization of South America.  It was discovered high in the Andes Moutains of South America.  It was a very wealthy empire from the 1500's and occupied a territory of more than 2500 miles along the western coast.  They built massive temples and walls out of granite stones,  some which weighed 10-20 tons.  They quarried them down river and moved them 2000 ft up a mountain. The stones were fit together so perfectly that in many places a knife blade could not be fitted between them.  How did they do that with no wheels and no written language? 

They grew incredible crops on cut terraces along the mountain sides with complex irrigation and drainage systems.  There is evidence to believe that at one time they knew and worshipped the True God, Creator God.  However, they also worshipped the sun god and then many gods.  As they turned away from the True God and indulged in pagan worship, their leaders became very corrupt and perverted and the nation followed.  They began to open their lives up to evil spirits and practiced divination and eventually gave their gods all they had, including their children.  They horrendously sacrificed their children at the age of 8-9 by placing them in sun-scorched fields to die.  Most of the culture became addicted to the coca (cocaine) leaves and they changed from a hard-working, wealthy civilization to a sick, perverted, weak people.  The Spanish conquistadores came in with a small army and conquered them.

With this culture being so technologically advanced, where are the Incas today?  How is it possible that a civilization so successful simply vanished, leaving only cold, stone monuments as a mute witness to former greatness?

Civilizations do not just die.  A civilization is destroyed not because of the wickedness of unbelievers but because of the carnality and deception of God's people.  Deut. 28 sets before us the choice of blessing or curses.  If our nation's survival depended on your spirituality, would we survive?

What is "Normal"?

What is 'normal'?  Recently a dear friend ask me if things are back to normal for us since we are back from our trip etc.   I must have looked at her with a funny look and we had to laugh, trying to figure out if things are back to 'normal' for us!  I'm trying to accept that there really is no 'normal' for us anymore.  About the time it seems like my days are producing some normalcy, circumstances change! :) 

Example:

Our church goes camping every year and for years our family has "changed" our lawn trailer into a "travel trailer" for the weekend.  Lots of work but can be fun if done with a great attitude.  We scrubbed the insides down with bleach, gave the walls and floors a fresh coat of paint every other year and set up housekeeping.  We set up a full size bed at one end, add a table, chairs, small refrigerator, use the shelves at the other end for bunk beds, load our ice chests, lawn chairs and all the other 'necessary items' and off we go.  We have alot of good memories working together to get ready for campout weekend. 

Something I have always appreciated about our church people is their creativity in camping with what they have.  No two people do it exactly the same.  Some have campers, some convert lawn trailers, some use tents, and some stay at motels.  Us ladies usually enjoy the "parade of homes" one forenoon as we tour each other's homes and get ideas on how we can improve ours for the next year.  I never sense a competitive spirit but always a lot of fun in it. (Of course, we always click our tongues if someone has something new. ha!)

Well, we sold our lawn business in February and with it went our "camper".  The kids have been concerned about what we are going to camp in this year.  I told them I was going to ask God for a camper for us to camp in.  Recently I was challenged by a blog by a friend of ours on "Asking God" and having faith.  We had been checking craigslist for campers and had set a price of what we felt we could pay for one.  It was seeming impossible to find one in decent shape in our price range so I was kind of thinking we may be going in a tent this year.  We used to tent it when the children were small and had some great times.  I am not really a "tent" person but I wanted to be willing to tent it this year if God wanted us to.  We went to look at numerous campers hoping the people would come WAY down so we could get a really nice one.... needing no work..... not to be. 

BUT GOD did find us one about an hour north of here, owned by an older Christian couple, who were no longer wanting the responsibility of pulling it on the road.  With a family of six (seven) we needed something that was big enough for us to get in and yet not to big for Derek's truck to pull.  The one we found is 19 years old but in decent shape.  Something it has that was important to me is a back door.  A back door is important to me in case of a fire.  (The kids think it is funny that I would even think of that!)  It needs quite abit of interior work done to it and so that has changed our 'normal' routine these days.  We started in the bedroom; the ceiling had some rotten spots in it so JR, Derek, and I tried our hands at installing a new ceiling.  We went to Home Depot, found some ceiling paneling and ta-da: a new ceiling.  What a mess it was to do but now we know how to install travel trailer ceilings! ha! 

Over the years we have had to do alot of our own projects because financially we were not able to afford to have someone do them for us.  Some of our greatest memories and something I will greatly miss when we are old is no longer being able to do projects together.  (hopefully God has many more projects for us to do yet!)

Back to faith:  does God always give us what we want?  No, He certainly doesn't.  But He does delight when we ask Him for our desires and then wait before Him and allow Him to give it to us if He wants to. He also delights and is glorified in finding us the 'impossible'. Everytime I look out the window at our camper I am reminded that it is a GIFT from Him for us to use for His glory. 

Are you looking at an 'impossible'? 

Ask God for the desires of your heart.

Allow Him the freedom to 'give or not to give'

then praise and glorify Him either way.

"In all things He works for our good."

Labor Day

It is unusual for the whole family to all have off work the same day.  This year everyone was off for Labor Day so we decided to make it a special day of 'labor' and then add some special touches to our day to make it a delightful day.

The men decided to dismantle the children's treehouse, which was rather sad to watch, as it truly indicates that our kids are all grown up now and have passed the season of treeshouses etc.  We had alot of fun building it for them soon after we moved to this location but time moves on...
In our back yard we have a large eucalyptus tree which made a perfect tree for a tree house.  Of course, the boys also explored the tree farther up and dad sometimes joined them.
After dismantling the tree house and saving what lumber (treated) we could for a future raised garden box, they trimmed a large branch off.

They buzzed up what they could to burn and bundled the rest to recycle.  They started a fire in a fire pit and we enjoyed the smell of burning wood as they continued to clean everything up.

Between helping with trees and working on a car that Kyle is restoring, he also fired up his grill and grilled some steaks for our dinner.  We marinated them in "Alegro", available from Publix, and they were the best steaks we have ever had!
Now lest you think steaks are a normal part of our diet, let me assure you that this was a treat we seldom and rarely indulge in.  These were done to perfection and were good to the last bite.

If you are considering grilling steaks, I am sure Kyle could give you some good advice on how to do it.
To make our meal complete we had a delicious bowl of veggies, a Caesar salad and peppemint tea.

While the men were working outside, us ladies were very busy inside.  The girls gave their bedroom a good cleaning, then shined up the rest of the house, too, while I sewed some curtains for Derek's bedroom.  (I hope to add a post soon on his bedroom as his renovation is nearing completion.)
We all worked together to get dinner ready and our day was finished off with a fun time of fellowship with the extended Weaver family.  We haven't seen each other much this summer while Grandpa's are up north so it was special to be together again.



Next step:  School. 
We normally begin school earlier, but we were unable to because of Derek's job, so we  are looking forward to opening the books again and hopefully increasing in knowledge and wisdom.

PGMC's new cookbook

Palm Grove Mennonite Church and School has a cookbook that is available for purchase. ($20.00)

It has recipes from current and previous school students as well as the ladies from Palm Grove.  There are some yummy-delicious recipes in it that are well worth checking out.  I have enjoyed trying out some of the new recipes and the family has been enjoying the new dishes.

(To purchase one go to http://www.palmgrovemennonitechurch.com/  and look under the 'school' tab.

This morning we started out our day with some Baked Oatmeal. 

1 c. brown sugar                           1/2 c. butter, melted

3 c. quick oats                              1 c. milk

1/2-1 tsp. salt                               2 eggs, beaten

2 tsp. baking powder                   dash of cinnamon

                                                   raisins, opt.

Mix all the ingredients together.  Pour into 9x13 cake pan.

Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.

Delicious with some cold milk and a hot cup of coffee.

For dinner we had a family favorite:  Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Before the oven...

In the oven...

3 Tbsp. butter                                      16 oz. jar alfredo sauce

1/2 c. sliced onion                                barbecue sauce

fresh mushrooms                                 2 c. mozzarella cheese

2 chicken breasts, finely cut

Saute onions, mushrooms and chicken in butter.

Prepare dough for crust:

1 Tbsp. yeast                        1 tsp. salt

1 c. warm water                    2 Tbsp. vegatable oil

1 tsp. sugar                           2 1/2 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in water.  Add the rest of ingredients and mix.  On a floured surface, knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes.  Preheast oven to 400 degrees and press dough onto greased cookie sheet.  I don't like doughy pizza so I like to bake for about 5 minutes before adding toppings.

Top with alfredo sauce, chicken mixture, cheese and dribble with bbq sauce.

Wait! Seriously, I was planning on leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

I also had some banannas that were going bad fast so I made several loaves of bananna bread.

3 very ripe banannas                                     2 eggs

1 c. sugar                                                     1 tsp. soda

2 c. flour                                                      2 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. baking powder                                   1/2 c. shortening (not oil)

1 tsp. salt                                                     1/s c. nuts, opt.

Mash banannas; add sugar and let set 15 min.  Mix flour, baking pwd. and salt. Beat eggs. Dissolved soda in water. Add shortening to bananna mixture.  Add dry ingredients, soda, eggs, and nuts.  Stir only until mixed. Bake in a greased 5x9 loaf pan at 325 for 50-60 minutes.

(I made a double recipe)