Large Family Mothering

Here is a link to a blog I have REALLY come to enjoy. She is a mother to 15 children and her blog posts really hit home. If you would like to have another great source of encouragement, I highly recommend Large Family Mothering, even if you don't ever plan on having 15 kids : )

Adventures of a Pastor's Wife #2

I'm Joining Internet Cafe Devotions for WFW


I am too prone to worry, and worry is something I am daily surrendering to God. However there are times when I am frail and worry and carry out crazy scenarios in my head and really have to turn to God, and give them over to Him, yet I am so glad to know He is never too busy for me, even for my "small" problems!

Sunday mornings during the preaching I take the children downstairs and we have Children's Church. I have really been working hard to make this time exciting and enjoyable to my young audience. This is a special time to teach them God's Word, how to pray and many other wonderful truths. Right now we are learning the 10 commandments and are making banners using felt pieces with the commandments written on them in glitter glue. I don't mind doing crafts, as long as they are not pointless and won't go into the trash a few days later.

We have 3 teenagers 13-16 who have joined us in Children's Church in the past, and are bored out of their minds and who have complained about what we have done. On Sunday as I was taking the children down ( ages 1-7) these 3 teenagers got up to come down too. I told them to please go sit back in the service as they were too old for Children's Church. I knew there would be people who would be upset, and I was so tempted to stay downstairs and hide when service was over : ) We were told that if there was nothing for these teens, they did not want to come to church. The age gap was just too great for them to be in with the children and yet I wanted them to have a class too, but I am only one person. We are also a small church...so what was the answer? The family who told us their kids wouldn't want to come left when we first came here to our pastorate and there were some issues with gossip. Jonathan also started a Youth Group on Thursday evenings for these young people and I just didn't know what more to do. *Sigh* I fretted and stewed and told Jonathan that I guessed they could come down as long as there were no complaints and they behaved : ) I was very distressed, and didn't feel too much better after lunch and as I was drifting off to sleep for our afternoon nap.

However, when I woke up, the Lord brought such a sense of peace to my heart, so very much what I needed! And then Sunday night our pianist offered to do a class for the youth, how wonderful is that?

But the real re-assurance came Monday morning in my Devotions and prayer time. I have been reading through the Psalms, and have been enjoying them, but there is nothing like opening God's Word and having the Lord speak straight to your heart, that's what the Lord did for me Monday morning.

He will not allow your foot to be moved: He who keeps you will not slumber.

Psalm 121:3

Give Away

Not from me but from Raising Olives
I have wanted the book Large Family Logistics for quite awhile, that is why I am making a special effort to do the entries. With our growing family this would be a wonderful resource to have! Go over and check it our for yourself at Raising Olives

A Day in My Life

I am desperate to keep the floor picked up, and to train all of us in putting our things away-hence our lost and found. If anything is left laying around (on the floor or counter or anywhere out of place) we are putting it in here. It will be emptied once a day by me and one of the children.
Today is laundry training day, the girls did great! I was so proud of them and they were so cute with their smiles and concentration.

And this morning we woke up to a cold house, BRRR. Our heat and hot water are on the same system and for some reason the heat was not working. With no hot water....this is what the kitchen looked like, this was after our dinner last night and Movie night snack. I decided if the heat and hot water didn't start working I was going to have to heat water on the stove...but I also decided I would have to be pretty desperate for that, like no dishes in the cupoboards to use desperate haha. Our heat and hot water are working again, and the house is warmer than 50 degrees so I will be tackling thses dishes soon.
Also Jachin has had a stomach bug, and is finally doing much better, he can be soooo cranky! But on a positive note, he couldn't keep anything down but breast milk, I was so glad I am still breastfeeding him! It prooves breast is best : )
Have a great Saturday everyone!

New Years Resolution

It's a little late for that right? Well, just so you know I made it on time, just haven't blogged about it. My New Years Resolution for this year is to have my quiet time with the Lord Every day. If you are a mom you know how hard this can be, and if you're not you know how hard this can be : ) There was a time in my life when I felt guilty (a good guilt, yes there is such a thing!) if I did anything before I had my prayer time and Bible reading, but slowly (like years slowly) it became more hit and miss, until the end of last year, weeks would go by without me picking up the Word. I am very ashamed of this, but not guilty of this any more. So this year I made 1 resolution, I could have had a list 20 feet long of all that I wanted to change, but God clearly showed me this 1 thing and I felt sure that if this one thing was "fixed" my long list would be fixed too!

The very first day of the New Year, after staying up until 12am to bring in the New Year with my brother and sister and my family, I was exhausted. I rolled over in bed, peeked at the clock, tuned my ears to the fact that everyone was still sleeping (including ALL 5 of our kids) and ALMOST decided to get a few extra winks. Just as quickly I felt the Lord speak to my heart, "You can do without a little extra sleep, but you cannot do without your time with me."
So I got up and had a very precious time with the Lord. I brewed some coffee, got my journal and Bible all ready, sat down on the couch in a perfectly quiet house and had a precious time with the Lord. He met with me so sweetly and gave me a verse which I am memorizing for the year. My heart is steadfast o Lord, I will sing and give praise. Psalm 108:1a What a verse for me, I needed a steadfast heart, and I could only get that from Jesus!

I am continuing on this journey with great although not perfect success. There have been mornings where I have missed the early rising, but still taken the time any way. There have been days I have had interruptions (there will be those days) but I have still taken the time out anyway. A very intersting thing happened, by taking my personal prayer time (even though it made me behind on so many things) I somehow was ahead and had a better day!

In conclusion I am desperately needing to excersise, and this is an "unofficial" resolution. I have placed a mile counter on the bottom of my blog for accountability. Please feel free to encourage me : ) I want so much to "do better" in a lot of areas, and I am trusting God with a steadfast heart!

Blog Button and Venison Bologna

I know I know, and these topics go together how?
My dear friend over at Treasure's From a Shoebox had asked me how I made my blog button, maybe most of you already know how. But just in case you don't, I found a great tutorial at this blog site Oikology 101. I had googled and searched for other tutorials and this was by far the easiest one I found. If you are a follower of Treasure's From a Shoebox, make sure you get her new button!



Are you married to a deer hunter? Or do you and your family love deer meat? I have a GREAT recipe for Venison bologna that is easy to make and so delicious. I have made it twice, and it gets eaten so quickly I wonder if I should go into business and market the stuff for a profit haha.

Tastes great with cheese and crackers!

4 lbs of deer burger (or hamburger or elk meat, just make sure it's lean)

1/4 cup tender quick salt

Mix above ingredients and let stand overnight in the refrigerator.

Next day add:

1 cup brown sugar (more or less according to your preference)

2 or 3 tablespoons Liquid Smoke

1 1/2 tablespoon Pepper

2 tablespoon Mustard Seed

1 tablespoon of both Onion and Garlic powder (optional) I do both

Mix together and shape into 4 rolls, 1 pound each. Bake for 2 hours at 250. Turn every 30 minutes while baking.

I found the Tender quick Salt at our local Bulk Foods store with the jerky making supplies.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Saturday night, right before bed, Silas had an accident and scraped the inside of his mouth quite badly. He pushed the gums up away from his teeth and broke the frenulum that connected his upper lip to his gums. He was bleeding everywhere and he ended up having to go to the ER.Before we left Karagen (7) said:"Mommy, we need to pray that Silas won't die, and that the roads will not be icy." It was very interesting to me that the roads were clear on our way there, and drifted and icy on our way home. God hears the prayers and faith of children!We have a wonderful 2 car garage and the children love to go there and play when it is too cold to play outside. Vaughn (6) really wanted someone to play out there with him one day and I overheard him saying to Silas: "Silas I NEED you!" He was very convincing. : )Emmaus (4 1/2) loves to pretend to be a princess. She received some princess dresses for Christmas and loves them. She had them on one day and she came and told me this: "Mommy, I'm trying to be a princess, but he won't dance with me!"Silas (3) is the biggest rascal of the bunch. I was giving him a piggy back ride and went to put him down and he said : "No I want another piggy bank ride!" I told him he would have to go get some money from his piggy bank to pay for his piggy bank ride. haha

New Button

I am going to be working on posting more often and have re-vamped my blog. I finished choosing the background and editing my header. Todays project was creating a new blog button. It's right over there to the right. Tell me what you think of it!

I have also added some of my favorite blogs, I wish they all had buttons too, but the ones who don't will be listed by their address.
Thanks for reading and I hope to post more in the future : )

Lord, Increase My Faith!

I have been having conversations with God and my husband about our finances. We are receiving a very small amount for our weekly salary here at our small church. It is enough that we barely squeek by, and if I told you just how little it was you would be suprised we can even make it.

I decided that it is up to the Lord and my husband to provide for our family, it is not my place to be the bread winner. Strangely this has taken the pressure off of me, and although I manage the finances and the checkbook, it relieves some of the pressure. It's not a cop out, but a coping mechanism that makes me trust my husband and the Lord.

We were just talking this morning (God and me) and He was asking me to trust Him. Later in the morning my husband and I were discussing our finances and he was asking me if I could trust God to meet our financial needs. I said, sure I know I can, especially according to the Bible and God's promises. But, I added, " We do have some very specific needs and I just don't know how we are going to do it, and I have a lot of fear, which I am surrendering to God."

So, tonight after service I was asked if I would like to clean our church weekly, for $50 a week. "I don't want anything more to clean" haha. Of course I'll do it! And wow, that will really help with our way too tight budget. I am am just amazed at how quickly God has come through in meeting our need AND in increasing my faith (which is pitifully weak sometimes)