Contentment, Joy & Abundance

According to Webster's New World Dictionary, Abundance is defined as
1)A great supply; more than sufficient quantity
2) Great plenty; wealth

Sallie at Gracious Home has posted about choosing to live in abundance this year. She has determined to:

Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Do without

This year I have chosen to focus on being joyful in my life and I think this fits along nicely with Sallie's thoughts on abundant living. The first step to being joyful is recognizing the blessings in your life and then being thankful for them. Along with this idea is learning to be content. I sometimes struggle with my lack of contentment and I see contentment as key to being joyful. Here are some scriptures I found that speak to contentment and joy.

2 Corinth 12:9-10
And he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.


Philippians 4:11-12
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

Psalm 5:11
But let all who take refuge in you be glad, let them ever sing for joy;

Psalm 16:11
. . . In Your presence is fullness of joy;. . .

And then finally . . . one of my favorite scriptures and prayers

Psalm 51:10-13
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will be converted to You.

There are many areas in my life that I can better celebrate the abundance that God has blessed me with. The first thing I need to do is spend more time in the Word and in Prayer to keep me focused and then work on being a better steward of the abundance in my life. I hope to share more thoughts on this topic in later posts.

Homeschool Carnival #55

The Parents Meeting Edition Carnival is up at Dewey's Treehouse. Grab a cup of coffee and join in for a real education.

New Years Thoughts

Amanda at Wittingshire posted this quote on her blog and I thought that it was food for thought.

“Giving yourself your word ought to be no less sacred than giving your word to others.” --Andre Gide

Homeschooling and the Real World

It is interesting to me that people think that children who are homeschooled are being sheltered from the real world, as if spending 6 or more hours daily, five days a week for 180 days or so a year is representative of the the real world. It also surprises me that parents so willingly give up their parental authority to the system. This week, we had our second snow during the school year and tomorrow we have a memorial service for a friend's wife to attend. If my children attended public school, they would have missed being able to play out in the snow, which we usually get very little of in our part of the world, as the schools were still in session. They would not be able to attend the memorial service tomorrow without missing class. Now playing in the snow may not be a necessity, although I feel that it is a treat that they deserved for working so hard the two days beforehand and I like for them to enjoy it because we see so little of it around here. The memorial service, on the other hand, is a very real part of life and it also will teach them to care for and comfort others. In both cases it was, us, the parents of these precious children who were able to make the decision as to when it is appropriate to miss "class" or not, instead of some school district bureaucracy and they will be much more exposed to the real world with their family and church family during the memorial service than if they were to be spending that time sitting in a classroom with 25 other children of the same age. Two more reasons that homeschooling fits our family.

Winter Wonderland

Thankful Thursday

Things I am thankful for this Thursday . . .

1. The beautiful way the snow looks on the trees.

2. That my chest cold seems to be drawing to an end.

3. I didn't have to commute on the icy roads last night with the rest of the commuters of Puget Sound.

4. That I was able to sell some textbooks we are done with in order to save up for other curriculum I would like to purchase.

5. My dad is cancer free.

Wild Winter Weather

It seems that our history of mild weather is somewhere in the distant past. Before Winter even started we had the wettest ever November with major flooding; a good snow right after Thanksgiving; and one of the worst windstorms in history just before Christmas, with a million people losing power. We were one of the fortunate households not to lose power during that storm but my 93 year old grandmother and our dear friends at Beth Spera in Domino were not so fortunate. Last night we had yet another windstorm, the second since the big pre Christmas day storm and this time we were not so fortunate. Our power went out about 12:30 a.m. and we wouldn't have known it except that the battery backup on our smoke detector system was dead, thus we awoke to alarms blaring, we ran around trying to find flashlights and a step ladder so that husband could change the battery, luckily we had extra batteries in the garage. Our power was out until about 11 am, not near as long as others suffered in our area before Christmas and for this I am truly thankful. Now we are preparing for the next storm, more rain and wind headed our way and then snow is predicted for Tuesday. I do not remember any previous winter like this.

Reflecting on a Year Gone By

With the old year gone, I have been reflecting on the past and thinking about the future. This is something that I tend to do every year around this time. When I look back on last year, I remember a year full of ups and downs. We started off the year looking for a new church family - a very hard thing after spending 13 almost 14 years at the same congregation. Our two oldest sons put on our Lord in baptism - a very joyous time for our whole family, we participated in an outreach campaign with church family in Texas and that was a very uplifting and energizing time, not to mention the fact that we got to spend a week with some very dear friends that live on the other side of the country. We found a church family to worship with and this brings mixed emotions as we are now commuting 40 minutes each way to worship and now are trying to figure out how we should serve with this new family. Boy 3 turned 10, Plant Lover turned 21 and we (minus plant lover) enjoyed a trip to Yellowstone Bible Camp for a week long family camp via a side trip to Glacier National park. The summer ended with boy 2 playing football for a local middle school and boy 1 taking drivers ed. We have had an up and down beginning to our school year, trying some new curriculum with success and trying to overcome other weaknesses. Boy 1 turned 16, boy 2 turned 13 and we had a whirlwind of a December with family gatherings and a quiet Christmas day and unfortunately with all the holiday busyness - somehow our family devotions went by the wayside, ironic huh? Some of us were sick the week between Christmas and New Years and so we had a very quiet New Years eve at home. It has been a year of trying to figure out how best to parent 3 rambuncious boys and encourage them to continue on the road to spiritual growth and there have been many distractions along the way such as youth group, family members facing cancer treatment and my 93 year old grandmother falling off her porch. With the busyness of the past year it was easy for me to lose focus on Jesus and worry or be discontented with my current situation - the times that made the best memories this past year, were those that were totally focused on Christ. This year I really want the joy of my salvation to shine through my life, to learn to bloom where HE has planted me and to see the opportunities for service that He has put before me. May you all have a Happy New Year serving our Dear Lord!

Traditions With a New Twist

We have the holiday tradition of decorating gingerbread houses and have always had fun doing them, usually spending that time with other friends or family. The past several years we decorated them the weekend after thanksgiving, thus having some of them for decorations during the Christmas season. This year we weren't able to do them that weekend and it looked as if we may not do them at all. They didn't seem all that excited about any of the usual craft making holiday traditions that we have had. Our boys aren't as into holiday tradition, memory making as I am, or so I thought. The week before Christmas they started asking about our gingerbread houses and when were we going to make them. Then my 8 year old nephew started asking and so my sister and I decided to get together the Friday before Christmas and decorate away. My two older sons, 16 and 13 decided to make a WWII scene with bunkers and boats and soldiers. They made templates, mixed, rolled, cut and baked gingerbread, enough for everyone. We ended up with a very large WWII scene, three houses and a Christmas tree of gingerbread between all of the cousins. They all had great fun and it was a lot less work for me, now that the boys are old enough to do the baking themselves.

Thoughts of Thankfulness

A few things/people I am thankful for:

My Salvation.

My hardworking and loving husband.

Our strong marriage.

Children who are learning to be what God wants them to be.

That my mom is cancer free!

Hunkering Down

Husband just went to the store to restock our pantry in preparation for the next storm. We are supposed to get snow again this afternoon/evening thru tomorrow morning. Sometime tomorrow it is supposed to warm up and turn to rain - but in the meantime we need to be prepared. I know it seems funny to people who get snow all the time, but the Puget Sound area is pretty much paralized when we get snow. We get so little snow that people don't know how to drive in it and it always seems to surprise the DOT, so that the roads are not ready and it always seems to hit during rush hour. My mother, who is in her 60s and a diabetic spent 4 hours on a bus in 20 degree weather on Monday evening. Her normal commute would be about 1 hour and 20 minutes. To further complicate things around here, there was also a Seahawks football game in Seattle on Monday and it let out at about 9pm. The freeways were gridlocked and it took some people 7 + hours to get home, there are stranded cars littering roads and now, as the roads are finally getting cleared off, we are supposed to get another snow. Our dear daughter had to commute to work today, about 40 minutes away from home - thankfully she has a place to stay down there should the snow hit before she comes home tonight. I am thankful that I don't have to go anywhere and can just stay home and enjoy the beautiful snow. I guess snow can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

Tis the Season

Yesterday, after worship service, we went to get our Christmas tree. Our family has the tradition of going to a you cut tree farm to cut a tree and we usually wait until a couple of weeks before Christmas to do this, but our schedules this year dictated us doing it this weekend or not everyone would get to go. It had been snowing a little in the morning on our way to church, but then it turned to rain and by the time we were heading out to get our tree, it was fairly pouring. While we were walking around the tree farm the rain started turning white and by the time we were leaving with our tree, it was snowing very hard. We were all very excited, you see we don't get much snow around these parts and so it is almost like a holiday when we do! After we got home, the boys played out all evening even though we only had about an inch. This morning when we woke up, there was about 8 inches and the boys have been out all morning. It is beautiful! Our backyard is still untouched, except for a few footprints along the side fence where boy #2 went to knock the heavy snow off of our little tree for me, we already had a branch break off of our rhododendron in the font yard from the weight of the snow and we didn't want the new little trees to get damaged. We are in a winter wonderland!

Black Friday -

It has become an annual event for my daughter, my sister and myself to go shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving evening we plot out our route for the next day and then we get up early in the morning and work our route. Fred Meyer is usually our first stop - they always have socks half price, plus many other items that we might want to purchase on sale. This year we were at Freds before 6 am - and there were quite a few people - but it wasn't too bad. They were prepared with all checkstands open and the lines moved very quickly, plus they serve free donought holes and apple juice and there is also a Starbucks in it, so we were set. We moved on to the new Target store and it was fairly empty, I guess everyone went on to the mall store. After that we went to the outlet mall not far from us and got a couple of good deals before bringing daughter home so she could scoot off to work. Sis and I headed to the new Kohls store and that was chaos, it was my first time in it and I couldn't believe how long the lines were - we just toured the store and then left and headed back to the outlet mall. The mall was now VERY crowded, but sis was able to make a couple of purchases and then we headed back home for lunch. We don't take the shopping too serious and have fun with it. When all was said and done, I had made some needed clothing purchases for my boys and sis had done a bit of her Christmas shopping - it was a pretty good day.

The Dinner that almost wasn't . . . .

This year we decided to use the roaster oven to cook our turkey, thus freeing up the oven to cook other items. This roaster oven is a family heirloom, it was my grandmothers and it has been around as long as I can remember - 40+ years. Well . . .this was the year it decided to bite the dust. Our turkey was only partially done at 5pm, the appointed dinner time, so we had to quickly shift other things out of the oven and put the turkey in and so we had dinner at 7pm instead of 5 pm. It did turn out well in the end and all 14 of us had a wonderful dinner and it was one that we won't soon forget.

YUM

Today was try a new recipe day on my menu rotation. We had Salsbury Steak and it was delicious! This recipe was one that my husband emailed to me several years ago and I had never tried it. He found it on the internet in 2001, but I do not know where he got it.

Salsbury Steak

1 egg
1 can french onion soup
1/2 C. dry bread crumb
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 T. flour
1/4 C. water
1/4 C. catsup
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. prepared mustard
chopped parsley

Mix 1/2 c. of the soup, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Add beef and mix well. Shape into 8 patties. Brown in skillet for 3-4 minutes. Remove patties to plate. In the skillet, stire together flour and water until smooth. Add catsup, worcestershire sauce, mustard and remaining soup and bring to boil. Stir 2 minutes. Return patties to the skillet with the sauce. Simmer 15 minutes. Serve salsbury steak with the sauce and enjoy!

Our whole family enjoyed this one!

Whats for Dinner?

I am not someone who enjoys planning menus and cooking and therefore continually struggle with getting it done. Unfortunately for me, it is a necessary chore. Having a menu planned helps us to save money and also much frustration during the week. Years ago I came up with an outline that helped make the chore of menu planning easier and also provide a variety of foods during the week. For some reason I got away from using the outline and decided to try to go back to it. Here is the new outline that I just finished working on:

MONDAY: Fish: Salmon (2), Salmon Patties, Pizza Fish, Tuna Wedge, Tuna Melts, Tuna Noodle Casserole

TUESDAY: Beef: Meatloaf, Steak, Hamburger Patties, Spanish Rice

WEDNESDAY: Soup: canned or White Bean, Lentil, Minestrone, Vegetable, Chili

THURSDAY: New Recipe

FRIDAY: Chicken: Italian Parmesan Chicken, Chicken & Veggies (Prism pg 199), Chicken & Rice,

SATURDAY: Kids Favorites: Taco Bake, Sloppy Joes, Pasta & Meatballs, Frito Pie, Garlic Chicken, Ala mom

SUNDAY: (crockpot): Roast, Pork Chops, Creamy Chicken, Stew

Using the above outline for ideas and considering our activities for the week, here is this weeks Menu.

Menu Plan

Monday: Tuna Melts with Peas

Tuesday: Spanish Rice with Green Beans

Wednesday: Chicken Soup, Canned and Rolls

Thursday: Salisbury Steak, Boiled Potatoes, Broccoli

Friday: Chicken & Rice, Carrots

Saturday: Youth Rally

Sunday: McDonalds?

Stop by Organizing Junkie's Blog for more Menu ideas.

Homeschool Carnival Week 42

Homeschool Carnival 42 is up at Homeschool Hacks and it attempts to answer many questions that you may have concerning homeschooling. It looks to cover a great variety of topics - something for everyone.

What have we been up to???

It has been so long since I posted anything here and there are so many things swimming around in my head. Our 5 weeks of chaos is about over - drivers ed. class is done and boy #1 successfully completed his course. He now must get more drive hours in and will also have to have his permit for at least 5 more months before he can take the drivers test for his license.

Boy #2 has been playing football for the local middle school and has thoroughly enjoyed it. He has one more week of football, including two games and then the season will be over. It has been a good experience for him, he has learned much about the game and about working together on a team. The school has been geat about working with us as homeschoolers and the other players have accepted our boy as a teammate.

Boy #3 has finished his second session of swim lessons and successfully passed to level 3. He will start level 3 in another week and he attends lessons two evenings a week. He has worked hard and it is paying off.

It has been a crazy, unusual time in our lives - but it was well worth it.

Auto shop - Homeschool Style

Our family is embarking on a new adventure. We have purchased a 1965 Mustang Coupe in great need of restoration. It was one of our goals for the boys to learn how engines and other automobile systems work prior to their graduation from our homeschool and now we have a hands on way for them to learn. The first step, as we see it, is to completely strip out the interior and see what we have to work with. Two engines and a rebuilt transmission came with the car and so we have something to work with there. This project will be a fun way for our boys to learn all about automobiles - from the inside out and to spend quality time with dad. I will post pictures periodically as things change.

What a Tackle!

In the middle of the project:

After the project was done:

This project became a family project. Our dining room chairs desperately needed recovering. The old country plaid was beyond cleaning and starting to get holes on the edges. The project involved removing the seats from the chairs and then removing the old fabric. This was a huge undertaking - the manufacturer used a kazillian staples which were not easy to remove. While the chairs were apart, two of our boys helped clean the wood frames with Murphy's Oil Soap and my husband made sure they were tight. After removing the fabric, my husband beveled the edges of the plywood and then I cut out batting and fabric that was left from when I made our curtains several years back. After recovering the seats, my husband scotch guarded them and reassembled the chairs. All three of our boys helped with this project which took the better part of Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon. I forgot to take the before pictures of the really ugly seats.

Thanks to 5 Minutes for Mom for hosting Tackle it Tuesday! Check out their blog for more completed projects and inspiration to Tackle it, whatever your "IT" is.