Category: Uncategorized

The wind has sure been blowing hard today. It’s amazing to see such large trees swaying in the invisible wind. It almost looks as if the trees are dancing.

I think we should be getting our truck out of the shop today if they got the problem fixed, that is. And if they don’t find anything else wrong with it. As soon as we get it back, I’ll be able to use my parents truck, and Scott will have his work truck. Then it will be a matter of finding out what is wrong with the van.

We have a preaching appointment this Sunday. Scott will be preaching in view of a call. He is still thinking on the new job possibilities but also doesn’t want to start a new job just to say, “Oh, Sorry I just got called to a church.” So he has talked to his present employer about training in order to get a raise. His boss sounds favorable toward that end and Scott plans to work hard and see if he can earn a raise. With his present job he knows he can have weekends off for preaching, other jobs may not be so flexible. So we’ll see. Since churches have been contacting us again, we may just hold tight and see what God might have in store for us.

It’s easy to get discouraged and near sighted but I know God has something that He wants us to do. We just have to hold tight and wait for his timing.

Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

We had a pretty good day so far today. Yesterday after I had written we went to a Spanish ministry. I really need to improve my Spanish by quite a bit. The missionary needed Scott to read a letter he had written in English to see if it sounds right, so we will be going over to another location that this minister has a ministry to help him with his letter and see how there services are on Sunday afternoons. I’m not sure if we will stay at that church for the English services tonight or go to our services tonight. I guess we’ll see. It’s easy to get too many irons in the fire. There is so many directions that we can feel pulled toward.

Yesterday I had my sights a little too high as far as what we are able physically and financially able to accomplish in a short time. I try to rush things and then it is no longer done well. It’s just done fast.

Scott and I have talked about what we would like to accomplish in the future. We want to teach the children skills that they can use when they are grown whether or not they choose to go to college. We want them to have a broad range of possibilities as far as carreers are concerned.

Scott would love to build and sell musical instruments. That has been a dream of his for a long time. I would love to see him pastoring and building instruments in his freetime. I told him that his building instruments will dedfinitely save us money.

I want to complete my education in Institute for Children’s Literature and start publishing things for magazines. It won’t be long and we’ll see these goals accomplished especially if we slow down and watch what God wants for us.

Well, time to go to the Spanish Ministry. I’ll have more to write later. Keep smiling!

Psa 127:1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Today, I woke up after hitting the snooze a couple of times and had to hit the ground running pretty much. After giving the kids their breakfast I had to get them and myself ready for the Ladies Auxiliary meeting that was going on at a church near us. It was pretty neat going back to the church I grew up in. A lot has changed and yet quite a few things remain the same. It was a good meeting and I enjoyed hearing my Aunt play a special on her harpsichord. I didn’t even know she could play anything besides the piano. She is a wonderful piano player and played for the song service today. Next quarter our church will be hosting the meeting. There was only two of us ladies there from our church and so it felt a little awkward offering to host without knowing if everyone else would mind or not. So I went ahead and said we would go ahead and host it. I’ll let the rest of the ladies know tomorrow at church. I wanted to sing a special but got there a little late to tell anyone. I was going to play my Ukulele and sing “Amazing Grace” and “He Looked Beyond my Fault” as a medley. It is really pretty together. I wish I had gotten there early enough to sing it. But there is always next time.

At the meeting we got to see a presentation by a man that had spent 3 months in Australia with his family helping a church over there. I think they are planning to go back there. It was a really good presentation.

Well, I guess that is all that has happened so far today. As soon as I get off the computer I plan to mail my next assignment to The Institute of Children’s Literature. I have finally completed Assignment 3 and will be mailing it in to my instructor. I am glad that I am taking this writing course. I love to write and hope to see my work in magazines and maybe even a book written by the time I’m done with this course.

We had lunch at the Auxiliary meeting so I do not have to get the kids lunch fixed. However I do need to get them to work on their lessons. I also need to buy stamps sometime and I would like to get some laundry done before Scott gets home. I’ll try to keep up my posts as often as I can. I may miss some days but seeing my dad writing a twice a day post has me wanting to try to keep mine going more regularly. It’s good practice for my writing as well.

Must go for now. I’ll try to write again tomorrow or later on this week.

Growing Up and Special Moments!

My children are getting so big! I’m amazed at how much they are learning and growing.
Joshua and Ruth have been taking Violin lessons for about three weeks now. The teacher said at the beginning that she may not have them actually bowing their violins for a few weeks. But they have been working hard and practicing exactly what she tells them to, that she has started them playing two notes with their bows. I’m so proud of them.

When Scott takes the other two to lessons Hannah and take time to do something special together. Today, I fixed up her hair and helped her get all dressed up pretty for going to Wal-mart. Ok, maybe most people don’t get all dressed up for going to Wal-mart but for a two year old it can be as exciting as going to a theme park for a teenager. The dressing up and getting to take her own dollar to spend makes it extra special.

After we fix her hair and she picks out the dollar she wants to take. I help her put her dollar in her little backpack and then I help her put her backpack on. Then we head out to the van. Then we walk into Wal-mart and I smile as people tell me how cute my little girl is. Then of course I have to spend 50 cents to let her ride the bulldozer ride inside the store. (I remember when rides like that were only 25 cents.) She picked out a water gun in the toy section and we got some small ones for her brother and sister.

Then we window shopped in the maternity and baby sections. Then we happened by a display table with samples of Dark Chocolate M&M’s! So we shared the five M&M’s in the little sample cup. I have had a terrible chocolate craving the past couple of weeks to make up for any non-sweet cravings in my earlier weeks of pregnancy. So I had to get 3 packages of M&M’s since they were on sale. Then Hannah handed her dollar to the cashier, and we checked out and carried our bags to the van. At home we ate chicken nuggets and went outside and shot the bouncy horse with water guns. I finally coaxed her back inside with M&M’s. So we split a bag of M&M’s. Then I had her take a nap.

Scott and the other two children arrived home by that time and I got to hear about their lessons. Then Scott went to work and during the second hour of Hannah’s nap, I took a nap.

Today may have seemed like a simple day and like not much took place for it to be so special, but sometimes even the simple things in life can be fun. It’s all a matter of perspective. Now my husband is coming home from work and is bringing me a milk shake!

Ecc 2:24 [There is] nothing better for a man, [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it [was] from the hand of God.

Memory Verses…

We, my family and I, have been setting some new goals for the upcoming months and year. The children and I have started working on memorizing a new verse everyday in homeschool. It is real neat how it has been getting easier and easier for them to memorize their verses. It’s amazing how much their minds can retain. Some people may think that it would overload the mind to keep putting that much information in it. But it seems like the more we put into our minds, the more our minds seem to grow and the easier it is to remember.

The amazing part is I’m not just teaching the children just parts of verses, or even just verses. I am actually having them memorize whole Psalms and chapters. Right now we are memorizing Psalm 23. A few weeks ago, I had them memorize Psalm 117. They have that whole Psalm memorized. Of course, Psalm 117, is only 2 verses long, but they were happy about it. Last week, my son, Joshua, wanted to stand up at church and quote Psalm 117. So I told my husband and he announced a guest speaker and let Joshua come up and quote the Psalm. It was great hearing him quote it flawlessly.

We’re not even using a “kids translation” that puts everything in simpler terms. I’m having them memorize it right out of the King James. I simply teach them new words and add them to their vocabulary. It’s pretty amazing. We were talking about how many verses they could memorize and I told them that if they worked on it, they could even have the whole Bible memorized. That would be neat.

I also have them quoting their Bible verses before meals and before we pray at bedtime. This has been a good practice time for them. We’ll first discuss which verse we are about to quote, and then after we quote the verse or verses, we have prayer. This has been real good. It gives them a chance to practice and then when they see their Dad after work, they are excited to share their verses with him. By the end of this week they will have the whole Psalm 23 memorized. Right now we know the first 4 verses and the sixth verse. Tomorrow, we will work on the fifth verse.

I also plan on trying to teach them some Hebrew. I’ll need plenty of prayer on this one, since I’m still trying to learn it myself. But maybe as I’m teaching them, I’ll learn more as well. I’ll have to, in order to keep up with them. They learn things so quick. Who knows, one day they may start teaching me.

Psalm 117 “O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD [endureth] for ever. Praise ye the LORD.”

The Finer Things of Life!

While living in this 40′ travel trailer, I have learned so much about the finer things of life. Some people may think I am talking the things that we miss out on, not having a bigger house. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

The finer things of life are really just what you make of them. Doing dishes by hand can be the finer way of life. I have a small double sink in the kitchen, so when the sink gets full, which only takes a couple of meals, I wash the dishes. There really aren’t that many dishes to wash. And over time, I have even been able to get the dishes cleaner faster than I used to. I have learned to enjoy doing dishes!

I have also learned to appreciate hot water with good water pressure. When we first moved into this trailer, our water pressure was terrible. There was a valve that was broken in the line that would shut the water line off to the trailer. We would have to go outside and turn the water off. Then we would undo the hose and let the pressure out. Then we were able to put the hose back on and turn the water back on. Once my husband figured out that problem, we had good water pressure again. Now whenever something in the trailer breaks, we both smile as my husband reminds me, “At least we have good water pressure!”

I also appreciate air conditioning. Although we did pretty well, with only one decent air conditioner for a time. I found that around 4:00 p.m. or so there was a nice evening breeze that would pick up. I always enjoyed the evenings when the breeze would cool the house down. Now our house is cooler all day, since my husband fixed the other airconditioner. I told him he was going to be an expert handyman, by the time he gets done with this trailer.

I also enjoy sewing by hand. My daughter needed a dress lengthened. I do not allow her to wear dresses above her knees, but she really liked a special dress that was too short for her. So I took the shirt part of the dress off and let her keep it as a shirt. Then I bought her a longer shirt that would lengthen the skirt of the dress. I do not have a sewing machine but I was quite pleased with the fact that I was able to sew the skirt onto the shirt by hand. I was incredibly slow at first, but the farther I went, the faster I was becoming. I was so excited that I was able to make straight small stitches that looked nice. I had never tried that before.

I could go on and on, with the things I have learned to appreciate! But I’ll save those for future blogs. For now I’ll leave you with a couple of verses and a thought that I find quite fitting…

Philippians 4:11-14 “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Hebrew 13:5-6 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

Can we fully learn to appreciate things the same, unless we do without for a time? I can be glad when we go through these “hard” times, because we have to depend on God to provide for us. When we do have more, I hope I will never forget the times when we had less, so that I will always remember to Praise the Lord!