Fake names...

I just wanted you all to know that from here on I will be using our real first names on our blog. Sunshine is Haley, Vision is Logan, and Beloved is Silas. It has just been too confusing for me as I type. :-)

Thoughts...

Yesterday I had something really heavy on my heart. It was the subject of children from godly homes, growing up and turning away. Oh how that breaks my heart and makes me want to despair. Quite honestly, I just about can't think of anything worse than our children rejecting the Lord. But yesterday I think the Lord wanted me to learn something and that is that I can't control any other person, not even our children. Our children have to choose the Lord for themselves. My job (with the Spirit's power) is to show them the Lord on a daily basis, teach them about the Lord, and pray, pray, pray. The Lord loves them and wants them to follow Him even more than we do. So, to a great extent, I must leave it in His hands. After wrestling through this yesterday, with my dear husband encouraging me with truth, I came to a rest and peace in Him. I CAN'T make my children godly so I don't have to be all stressed out trying. Anyhow, I don't know if any of this makes sense to anyone else, but those are my thoughts. :-) God bless you all today as you love the Lord, your husbands, children, and keep your home.

Amazing...

Here is a short movie on YouTube that is really something to watch. One more huge reason why I believe in having big families if possible. Children are such a gift from God. The muslims are taking over the world with their own children. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

Homemade Tortilla's

Tonight for dinner we had fried zucchini sandwiches with tortilla's as the bread part. They are delicious and mostly healthy. I make a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and put that in a cake tin. Then I slice zucchinis into fairly thin discs. I put the sliced zucchini in a bowl of water and melt some butter in a frying pan. Then I put some zucchini in the flour mixture and coat. Lay these in the melted butter and fry on both sides until golden brown. Then put mayo and cheese on a piece of bread or in a tortilla, fill with fried zucchini and roll up or put a top piece of bread on. There you have it! We really enjoy these sandwiches. Some people like a slice of raw tomato on these too. Now for the tortilla recipe... 4 cups of whole spelt flour 1 heaping teaspoon of salt 1 to 2 cups of water (add as needed) 1/4 cup oil Sift together flour and salt. Add oil and some water and start to mix. Add enough water to make a nice, soft, supple dough. Not too dry (no extra flour in the bottom of the bowl) and not so wet that it is very sticky. Cover with plasic wrap and let sit on the counter for at least 6 hours. Then heat up a skillet and put a bit of oil in the bottom. The skillet should be on medium to medium high heat. We have just had to learn the right temp. by trial and error. Dust the counter with flour and roll large golf ball size pieces of dough into thin, round circles with a rolling pin. Cook on each side for a couple of minutes and there you have wonderful, healthy, homemade tortilla's. If they are totally stiff and unrollable then they were probably cooked too long. ENJOY!!!!

Our Week

I wanted to give you all a bit of an update on our life. We are all settled into our new home and are enjoying it so much. Yesterday afternoon Sunshine and Vision had the most wonderful time working on building their own little fort. They didn't even want to come in for dinner they were enjoying themselves so much. A few days ago they packed a special little picnic and went a hiking/exploring. When they found a good spot they sat down and ate their special little picnic and then continued on their adventure. We had walkie-talkies to communicate with. Every once in a while we would talk to each other, mostly for Mama's sake to make sure they were okay. They are just having a grand time on this beautiful mountain. We are so thankful to the Lord for putting us here for this time. We don't know exactly how long we will live here but we want to enjoy it while we are here. Dh was gone to another state this whole week for his new job training. He loved it and can't wait to get doing it. It is with a decorative concrete business. We never knew that there was even such a thing as decorative concrete, but it is just amazing what they can do with this type of high-tech concrete. While at training they made a wall that looked just like a brick wall, colors and all. Paints and stains are used to make the colors. They do floors that can look like a marble floor, shower walls, counter-tops, and sinks. One of the really neat things about this to me is that dh will be able to use his artistic abilities. The owner is a Christian and we are so glad! The owner and hubby had a wonderful time together all week and are looking forward to working together. Sunshine and Vision have their first big concert coming up with their young orchestra. They are so excited and hopefully Mama won't blubber too much. ;-) Beloved is running all over and is just soooo smart. He loves for me to hold him...that is his favorite place to be. If we could just get the excema on his face all gone. We just recently celebrated the one year anniversary of the day we got him and how thankful we are for him. Sunshine told me that she doesn't know what she would do without him. Sunshine finished her last math lesson this week and Vision has two more lessons to go. I love the math that we are using. Sunshine is already doing algebra and she just finished 5th grade. We also just started a new science program and I think it is going to be wonderful. This was our first week. It is Apologia science and we are going to go through the Botany book. I must admit that I still have not found a satisfactory grammar program. We are thinking of trying Easy Grammar. Does anyone have any suggestions? Tomorrow we are having a special Easter breakfast at our church and then we are having people over after church for lunch. On Thursday evening our church got together and had communion together along with washing each other's feet. We also spent a long time singing to the Lord together. It was a special time thinking about all that Christ has done for us. May you all be blessed with more of Him as you remember His death and resurrection this weekend.

The Move...New Mercies

Here we are, just a few days before our move to the mountain. It is so beautiful up there. We will be living on 49 acres that are mostly wooded. The children and I are looking forward to going on our daily walks surrounded by God's amazing creation! For now we will be living in the walk-out basement of the log home. It is much larger than our apartment and has two glass sliders looking down the mountain. I know we will very much enjoy living in the basement and on the mountain. Sunshine and Vision are daily enjoying playing their cello and violin together. What a blessing to us! We all played together in church last week, Dh on the piano, me on the guitar, Sunshine on the violin, and Vision on the cello. How sweet it is to be able to all play and sing together!! We LOVE it!! We sang a song that we learned from dear friends in our home state, 'There's A Mighty River'. It is such a special song to us. Whoever wrote the song was given a gift by the Holy Spirit. I am so thankful for new mercies and new days from God. Last Saturday I felt unable to continue on...I was seemingly surrounded by dark clouds with no hope of sunshine in sight. I spent most of my day crying. To put it plainly, I was a mess. I missed our families and friends terribly. No matter how much I tried to look to the Lord, I could only cry and wonder if He really was hearing our prayers. Since dh has barely worked for almost 4 months with no work in sight, I felt like a hopeless, wrung-out dish rag. Anyhow, by the end of the day I was seeing a bit of sunshine thanks to my dear husband, a neighbor from Nepal, and some friends we had over for dinner. By the next morning I was feeling almost entirely renewed and thankful that it was a NEW day. Unbeknownst to me, my loving dh had asked the Lord to please ;-) send some encouragement for me. Well, He did. That day we were given a refridgerator to use in our new living place, some meat, possibly some work at our church, and a brother in Christ stopped by with a gift for us. How undeserving I was, but how loving and merciful He is. O me of little faith. I am sure we all have days where there seems to be no hope for whatever situation we are in. God will never push us beyond what we are able. He is a good Father and only does what is good for His children. Many times it is hard to hold on to that when difficult situations come, but He will never desert us. He is trying us by fire so that we can come forth as gold. The Lord wants us to be able to totally trust no matter what is going on around us. Thank you Father for your tenderness.

Down Computer

I just wanted you all to know why I haven't been able to put up any new blog posts...our computer is not working right now (hasn't been since the day that I put up the last post). I am typing this from the library right now and I do not have any way of posting any pictures. When I can I will resume putting up posts. God bless you all!