Too Much Excitement Before 5am
I know it’s been awhile since I have written….yes… I have all kinds of excuses, the main one being…life happens. And just to prove my point, I thought I’d share a bit about a morning I experienced last week.
Too much excitement before 5am
My alarm didn’t go off at 3:50 like it was supposed to in order for me to take my oldest son, Ben, to work. I did awake to Ben knocking on my door at 4:10. I hurriedly jumped out of bed and got dressed. We left as soon as I got my coat and shoes on.
Thankfully, he started the pickup for us an hour earlier, which didn’t do a whole lot of good because the draft in the pick up is so bad, we shivered the whole time. It was somewhere around 15°.
I got him to work fine, but when I came up our driveway, there was a huge snow drift that I got caught up in and lost it. I was stuck in the snow.
I went into the house. It was 5 am by this time and I was supposed to wake Dennis, anyway. I told him about it. I tapped on the boys’ bedroom door to wake up Joe and Eric. Nephew Steven woke up, as well and between the three of them, they shoveled me out.
Dennis was up by this time and went out to check on things. He moved the [unstuck] pickup, then found that the door had froze open. He couldn’t get it to loosen, so he headed over to the other pickup (the one with little to no brakes) and began to get it started. Meanwhile, Joe took a screw driver to it and got it releasing fine. Dennis came back to mess with it and found that we had no tail lights or dash lights. Evidently, we blew a fuse. At the time, he thought it was wiring.
His car is in another city, the van’s battery is dead, the other pickup has no brakes, David’s van is at the motel with his folks. What was he to do? Dennis starts to unthaw the older Chevy pick up, which has no brakes. We couldn’t find the window scraper, remembered the flashlight is in David’s van…at the motel. The good news is, though, that this pick up has 4 wheel drive, so off we went.
Our driveway goes down hill with a drop off on both sides, then heads back up with a curve in it, so Dennis, not wanting to get stuck, gooses it. I gasped, as I hadn’t gotten my seatbelt latched. The three boys are in the back seat. My nephew begins sweating. Dennis stops! He backs up the driveway in the dark, then goes for it again. He tells me he was carving a way through that snow drift for when I come home. Okay… good…we need a path to get home.
We get to where Dennis’ truck is parked. He set my brake. We all went into the little store because Dennis forgot his coffee and the boys and I went in to find a scraper. We go back out, said our good bye’s and pull out onto the street. I almost immediately turn right and proceed onto the on ramp of the freeway when suddenly, this overwhelming cloud overcomes us all. Steven rolls down his window right fast and I pull over on the on ramp. I tell the boys to (in the dark) run as fast as they can back up to the truck stop and catch Daddy… but don’t get hit! Remember? It’s about 15°. Nephew, Steven, is wearing only a sweatshirt. It’s black. Joe is in his jammie pants and his hunting snow outfit, which keeps him warm and is hunter orange, so we thought surely Dennis would see them his headlights even shone on the boys, but HE DIDN’T SEE THEM! They were waving at him and he drove on by.
Fortunately, before I left, I saw my mil’s cell phone sitting by our phone and took it with me, “just in case.” So, seeing the boys’ plight, I called my brother-in-law, who was snoozing peacefully at our house and woke him up. I told him what was going on. I didn’t know whether to move forward or what. I didn’t want to burn something up! He finally told me to move a little while he was on the phone with me. I did and it was fine!
We came on home. No problem… until the driveway. I did the turn and gassed it. I aimed for one of the tracks Dennis made for me but instead, I must have caught part of the drift and it sucked me in. I gassed it more and made it up, up, up… then it died. It wouldn’t start again, but we were home and all thankful!
There’s really more to the story. It has turned into a bit of an ongoing saga. Let’s just say, as it stands now… It’s a week later and the van is still dead, with one battery removed (diesels have two batteries), the pick up with no brakes is sitting up on our road, broken (probably a fuel filter), the yellow pick up has been pretty good…after we dug it out of a snow drift and in spite of it’s draft, and God is good to take care of us.
Coffee might help women’s blood pressure
Hey! This might explain my great blood pressure!
Click here to check out the article.
Excuse me now, while I go get another cup.
Slavery
The Bible assumes we are all slaves. The question is, who is our master? We can be a slave to sin/Satan or a slave to Jesus Christ. If you are not obedient to Christ, are you really His?
Proverbs 29:21 says, “He who pampers his slave from childhood will in the end find him to be a son.
Romans 6:15-18 says, What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were
slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
1 Corinthians 7:17-24 tell us, “Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.
My point is that we, as Americans, are so willing and eager to pursue our “rights.” Just because we are Americans, does not mean we have rights. The constitution says we are granted by God certain inalienable rights. That was true of Adam, but he then gave them up in favor of slavery, which we are born into. We belong to Satan when we come into this world. If you reject Satan, it’s to be obedient to Jesus. If you are not obedient to Jesus, you are embracing Satan. Don’t get hung up with what happened 150 years ago in our country and, therefore, assume all slave/master relationships are bad. This is not so. Bondslaves/bondservants were given freedom, but chose to stay. That is why Paul, James, and Peter considered themselves slaves to Christ. Romans 1:1, James 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1 In the King James, they use the word, “servant.”
There are many places in the New Testament where slaves are mentioned in parables, Jesus didn’t make a value judgment against it. He rather commended the good slaves. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells about the good slave and evil slave. The good and faithful slave was, “faithful with a few things,” and put you in charge of many things; then told, “enter into the joy of your master.'” Can we be as reliable?
Mark 10:43 says, “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
The slaves in scripture were not racially divided. Dark-skinned people owned light skinned and vice versa. Slavery was a social condition, not racial. Just like in India with their cast situation. They all look the same, but if a low cast person were to walk through a high cast neighborhood, they could be imprisoned or put to death.
Racial slavery, as far as I know, historically, has only been an American thing. But I am not talking about racial slavery. I am just referring to the fact of slavery, itself.
Take the current situation in Sudan. You have the northern Sudanese enslaving the southern. They look the same, but one is Muslim and one is Christian. That is the issue there. Everywhere in the world, slavery has been political and social, in America, a racial divider.
Scripture does not promote slavery. Scripture does not promote sin. Notice in Philemon …he was a slave owner and a Christian. Onesimus was the slave, who had ran away. Paul had converted him. Paul said the right thing for him to do was to go back (verses 10-18). He does not say to release him, rather, he wants him to greet him as he would Paul. He would rather keep him with him to minister to him, but knew it was right to send him back.
We need to get past the black/white issue and not drag our American culture into scripture. The greater issue of slavery, I again repeat, is who are you a slave to…because you ARE one.
Now, I have shown scripture that refers to believers as slaves. Are you a bondslave? Do you owe your life and allegiance to God? Yes. You have been bought with a price. Are you indignant because God purchased you? 1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Peter 2:16 tells us to, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.
By the way, if you are truly anti slavery, we support a group called World Relief that provides food and necessities to starving southern Sudanese Christians. They also buy back those that were enslaved by the Muslims. Can you believe that for $70, US, you can set someone free? These are the ones Jesus was talking about when He said, “if you haven’t done it to the least of these, you haven’t done it to Me.” World relief is nothing like world vision. World Relief makes good use of their resources. You can compare their financial reports to find this information. Email me if interested.
Remember, the point is, who is YOUR master!
My dh wrote this some time ago.
What Would You Watch?
This is an excerpt from Doug Wilson’s book, Reforming Marriage…puts things a bit more into perspective, don’t you think?…….
“We would like to invite you over this evening…..”
“Why, thank you!” he says, innocently enough.
“Wait, wait, that’s not all. We would like to invite you to come into our bedroom and watch us while we have sex. It could be a really exciting time for all of us.”
The Christian recoils in horror. “We couldn’t do that. You see, we’re Christians.”
“Oh, I see,” he says, scratching his head. “That could be a little much for you then. I’ll tell you what! We have a video camera. Why don’t you let us tape it, and I’ll just bring it over in the morning. Then you watch it whenever you want.”
The Christian explains that this wouldn’t be possible either.
“I don’t understand,” the neighbor says, with a puzzled look. “Last week you invited us over and we all watched that movie on your VCR. It had a couple of skin scenes in it. Why are you willing to watch another man’s wife, but not mine? My wife may not be the best looking….”
Here the hapless Christian interrupts and explains that her looks have nothing to do with it. He goes on to explain that they are not ordinary Christians. They belong to that very special breed – hypocrites
DIVE Into Math With Saxon
We have been using D.I.V.E. into Math CD’s with Saxon for several years now. It took me awhile before I broke down, spent the money and purchased several of them. I am so glad I did! They are working really well!
Let me tell you about them! This fellow uses media player to make your computer screen into a white board where he draws out and diagrams math problems. He follows the Saxon books’ lessons. I’m sure I’m not saying this clearly. Basically, when a child is ready to do a lesson, they sit down at the computer, bring up the lesson on the D.I.V.E. CD, and listen as the man explains things. They can stop it, back up, and replay. You don’t see the man, just hear him. No bells and whistles…but certainly makes learning it easier. When the lesson is done being explained, the child goes to their lessons in the book and works them. I have found that when my children do the tests, I can see if they need to go back.
Also, this man gives his testimony, educational background, and an exhortation to the children to do well in school and why. At the beginning of some of his lessons, he encourages the kids again to do well, obey their parents, etc….just briefly.
Here is the website. I telephoned them to make sure I was using the right version of Saxon with the right CD. I spoke with the gentleman’s wife. She was very personable. They shipped to me very quickly. http://www.diveintomath.com/
Haul’n Water. A Pictorial
Where we live, many folks haul water, who are not on city. Many do not have a working well, if they have one at all, so the water gets poured into a cistern.
We have both a cistern and a well. Sometimes, our well goes dry, so we have to haul water for the cistern. I hope you enjoy this pictorial of us hauling water.
Here we are in our late 70’s model 4-door Chevy heading off to get water for our family to use.
That’s me in the driver’s seat.
The destination
What’s most interesting is doing this in sub zero temps.
MOTH “A time for everything and everything has a time”
MOTH = Managers Of Their Homes
In theory, it’s supposed to streamline and organize your family.
Reality is another thing…or is it?
This year, I sat Anne down with me to help me work out our schedule. You see, the main reason we’ve been using the MOTH is because we have 3 networked computers and a handful of students and I needed a way to coordinate everyone doing their Switched on Schoolhouse Language Arts and their DIVE math CD in order to do their Saxon, not to mention all the “earned” computer time and educational “stuff.”
We got the schedule down. It looked like a dandy! It was beautiful! I was pleased.
A few things have changed since last year due to Benjamin graduating and working full-time, as well as Anne taking on a new job of sewing hunting decoys for MT Decoy and Cabela’s. (She does this from home)
The first day of our schedule arrives. We are poised. Mom is excited and motivated to take on the days ahead! The schedule has been gone over, checked and rechecked. By the end of the first couple of hours, it becomes very apparent something’s amiss!
I knew that something was wrong when Emily came to me and said, “Mom, you forgot my SOS.” Ok. I could deal with that minor oversight. Another child came to me and said I had forgotten to schedule them for a bathing! Hmmm Later, Elizabeth came to me and said, “Mom, you forgot my SOS, but put me down for reading three times.” (Poor girl. Imagine that! What a rough schedule when reading is your very favorite thing to do in life!)
Of course, I got the usual complaints, “Mom, can you reschedule us to feed and care for the chickens at, say, 7:00? 6:30 Is too early. “No, sweetie. If I did that, then you couldn’t eat breakfast.” “Mom, I don’t like that my ‘free time’ is scheduled. It doesn’t feel free if it’s scheduled.”
Back to the drawing board…or in our case, Excel. I work our MOTH in Excel. Since there are so many of us, it seems to work well. Some great ladies at the Titus2 forum, since closed to any ol’ yahoo, helped me out to learn how to monkey with the cells to get them to conform to my likeness. At least that is the hope. In the past, I color-coded everyone, but this year, I am trying something new by color-coding times in which a person is on a computer in order to keep it all straight! It also helps that each of our computers have names. My computer is fondly called “Mother” or “Mothership.” Since the other two computers came from our office, we lovingly named them after the people who used them, “Darren” and “Valarie.”
I finally made the unfortunate decision to delete Abigail (1) and Jayden (2) off the schedule since we were hanging off the edge of the paper and I couldn’t find my tape to print more pages to put together like a puzzle. I didn’t want to attempt “landscape,” for this old brain of mine just couldn’t handle further confusion.
Well, after a week of stumbling through my first draft of the final schedule, or was that the final draft of the first schedule… I sat down and revamped it once again.
Of course, there is an exception to every perfect schedule and our exceptions are those of Thursdays when one son has guitar lessons, every other Wednesday, two sons work in the morning, they just began a job each afternoon at a neighbors “until the snow starts flying”, Monday’s Daddy’s home, so we have to remember that we may not always follow schedule on Mondays…shall I continue with the “exceptions to the rule?” Of course there’s sick babies, and sometimes, sick mama’s.
We used to have a “loose” schedule. Up by 8 o’clock, chores and fed by 10 o’clock then start school until lunch, finishing in the afternoon. When baby number 9 was on his way, I knew a few things had to change: One, we needed curriculum that freed me up a bit, and two, we needed more order and discipline in our lives. However, many other benefits have come from this schedule: I can make sure we are doing everything Daddy wants us to get done in a day, if laundry is sitting there, I am assured it will be taken care of “in it’s time.” You know the old saying, “A place for everything and everything in it’s place?” Well, using this MOTH schedule is like that. We could say, “A time for everything and everything has a time.”
Tips For Processing A Beef
The longer the butcher shop can hang the animal, the better for flavor. You might consider asking them how long they hang it and request a MINIMUM of 2 weeks. The butcher will have a good idea based on the animal’s fat cover.
Think about how many pounds of hamburger you use at a sitting for your family and have them package it in the appropriate pound size.
Ask them if they add any fat to the hamburger. Some butcher shops actually add fat from other people’s cows…or even pigs if they think it’s too lean. Personally, we like ours as lean as it can get. You can let them know your preference. Fat does contain flavor.
Do not have them wrap too many steaks in a single package. You can always thaw another package. The other two reasons for this is that if you wanted to just thaw two for a “special occasion” OR if you just want to cut it up to use in something, you won’t have too much. When considering the size of the steaks, remember that 1/2″ is considered thin, 1″ is thick. Most people enjoy the 3/4″. Remember, though, the thicker the steak, the less number of them you will have.
Think about the size of roast you usually use and consider if you want leftovers to use in other dishes…or simply a tad larger to accommodate company.
We found the best way to handle the brisket is to have it “corned.” This would mean it’s been marinating in herbs/spices/brine and will be ready to cook slowly for corned beef (ahhhh Reuben sandwiches!). If you are purchasing half a beef, there will be only one of these. If you choose not to “corn” the briskets, it’s great for hamburger.
Be mindful that the more/larger roasts you have, the less hamburger you’ll end up with. Same with stew meat. Stew meat is nice, but it would mean less hamburger. If you do go with stew meat, I suggest 1 pound packages. It can easily be stretched.
Our family never orders the ribs. We prefer not to use freezer space for bones and found that for us, the meat was more wisely used as hamburger.
Speaking of bones, if you decide to take the “dog bones,” make sure you have enough room in your freezer for them! They are large and quite a few. You better have a big dog. ~smile~
I am sure the butcher will answer any other questions you might have.
If you get jerky, pepperoni, or sausage, that will cost a little extra. Usually, they require you to purchase a minimum amount. That might mean that they require 20 pounds of meat in order for them to process a batch. You can get it wrapped in whatever size, though. Remember, this will also take away from your hamburger.
They will probably wrap in freezer paper. If you want vacuum-sealed, it will cost extra (if they offer it). The vacuum-sealed is nice in that you can see what’s inside, but the paper will be labeled. Also, if the paper gets torn in an area, which is not common, only that small section will get freezer burned. If the vacuum-sealed gets a small hole, which is very possible, especially with bones, the entire package will get freezer-burned. The probability of this happening increases with meats that contain bones. If you catch it in time, plan on using the meat in the damaged packages quickly.
You finally got your meat home. What do we do now?
When you bring the meat home, have a pad of paper and a pen handy. As it is being loaded into the freezer (Hopefully, you have cleaned out the deep freezer beforehand), write down the cut of meat and write “tally marks” next to an item so you can keep track of how many you have of each. Stack the same cuts together for ease of location!
What about organic, anyway?
There is a difference between free range and organic. Organic must be certified. If it is, then the farm/property would be certified, as well. This means all the feed/hay and the land is certified organic, meaning it’s like 2nd or 3rd generation pesticide/herbicide free. I can’t remember for sure, but I think it’s mother was to be hormone free, too. You can expect to pay a good price for this beef!
Too Busy To Blog
Huffing and puffing trying to catch up!
Since I have been away, we’ve been picking chokecherries and canning syrup, freezing corn, shipping books, taking kids to and from work, celebrating our Abigail’s first birthday (!), dealing with attorneys, visiting a couple sick friends in hospitals, hauling water (remind me to share sometime about hauling water), hauling wood, making trips to the post office, paying bills, vending at the farmer’s market, etc., etc., etc.
I still have to finish freezing the corn and carrots and do more chokecherry syrup. YUM!
We are going to be entertaining our next door neighbors tomorrow afternoon. They are new neighbors on their second marriage. She is from England and has a beautiful accent. She flew over to England to pick up her teenage daughter and a friend and brought them back here to stay for 5 weeks (this is the length of their summer break). Then she will be accompanying them back to England. The teenage girls brought us a box of “fudge” from England. They came up on horseback, to the little ones’ delight. Their accents were so thick, it was nearly impossible to understand them. As Anne stood at the house doorway, she noted they sounded as thought they were speaking another language.
So tomorrow, if everyone is well, we will have them for lunch. They told us that it would be very delightful.
For this morning, though, I am trying to enjoy my coffee and do some catching up. This included passing through my blog and sharing only a glimpse of life at our home. Busy as always. I will try to get back another time to share about Abby’s doctor appointment and various other sundries…oh yes..and share our hauling water photos.