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Showing posts from January, 2010

Friday Favorites!

Friday!!!! This is our traditional day off, but I wanted to give you some bloggy love, even if it's just a little. I wanted to share with you one of my Favorite Things. I'm a coffee lover. I will drink it most mornings and some afternoons. My first introduction was foldgers. And it wasn't very good but I drank it because I didn't know any better. I went through many phases and machines until I finally got my Keurig . It is one of my favorite coffee machines ever! The pods come out to 25-30 cents per cup, which is far less than a coffee shop and very much so the quality. I find that I drink less coffee because each cup is more satisfying. The system can also produce hot water for various things and there are hot chocolate and tea pods, and there are some accessories that allow you to use your own coffee and the other filter packs on the market. My favorite blends are GMC Golden French Toast and most any breakfast blend. The pods are becoming more and more readily avail

The Voice New Testament

 Oh how I wanted to enjoy this!  I had visions of an alternative to The Message, but instead, what I got was something all together different.  This is a retelling of the New Testament by the Ecclesia Bible Society.  Yes, the original languages were used, scholars were consulted (I even studied under one of them!) but in the end, it is simply put a Post Modernism New Testament tract.  Something to give to non Christians that are unreceptive to The Gospel in its traditional form.  That being said, the writing is lovely, there is still the use of chapters and verses, book introductions, footnotes, and commentary. The commentary is well placed and easy to understand.  The Voice New Testament is intended to be read aloud and the "screenplay format" lends itself to readings with multiple speakers.  It is poetic and beautiful, but I would not foresee it taking the place of any of the traditional translations. I was also disappointed with the lack of a topical index.  With such a

Thankful Thursday!!

Thursday again already!  What a fast week this has been.  Time for another pondering on what exactly it that I am thankful for.... 1.  My daughter and her willingness to let me be her teacher.  She may not want to learn everything I want to teach her, but she is willing to listen and try most of my ideas. 2.  My great husband, who goes to work and provides for our home and our needs 3.  Water, specifically clean water and hot water.  It lets me wash my clothes, dishes, and ourselves.  It also provides great cups of coffee! 4.  Fulfilling work.  I love the things that I have to fill my time here in this time and place, lots of crafts, teaching, resting, reading.  It's good stuff. 5.  How God is using my gift of teaching, I was realizing yesterday that not only has He allowed me to teach in our home, but also at our church, I teach a Sunday school class, and sit on a couple of different committees that help guide the education of the church, which is just awesome! What a

What's for Breakfast?

A dear friend of mine, Kelly, asked a great status update on Facebook this morning..."Describe your favorite breakfast" which is far better than her "Do you pee in the shower one?" from yesterday! Here's the answer that I gave her on fb Get in the car, drive to momandpop restaurant, be seated with a large party, flip over coffee cup add coffee and little plastic half and half packages. Look at the menu ask everyone what they are getting. Order something with eggs potatoes and toast. Sit back and enjoy the family and friends. Laugh tell funny stories about one another, hear each others news. Help the waitress figure out who got what, eat some of what looks better than my own order. Decide on another cup of coffee. Laugh some more. Pay for everyone's meal give hugs and kisses get back into car and head home I think that meals can often be about more than the food.  Yes, food plays a HUGE part of the meal, but it does not have to be the shining star.  Of

Creative StallOut

I have a bunch of unfinished projects.  And I'm not talking about a need to do some stash busting, where you have a lot of raw materials that need to be turned into a project.  I have a bunch of started projects that I have in one way or another stalled out.  I thought that I would share them here with you for maybe just a little accountability, even if it's just the fact that I have now proclaimed to the world that I'm a staller. These are just the ones I found with a quick look around my bedroom and living room and my purse :D 1. That's my first sock, ever!  I've got one finished and one on the needles.  I'm doing a pretty good job of working on it every day 2.  Hannah's quilt.  She picked out the pattern a few, ahem, years ago and I've decided to start on it, finally, but you see how far that's gone. 3.  That's a quilt for Joel and mine's bed.  Just got a huge amount of fat quarters for it and have started cutting, but not anywher

In between semesters

We are homeschooling.  Hannah is in kindergarten.  We just finished up Volume 1 of Five in a Row.  If you want to read our adventures with that, drop by my old blog .  After much prayer and research, I decided that this spring we are going to work on two things, counting to 100 and getting Hannah to a place where she not only recognizes her name (which she does) but that she can spell and write it correctly.  Right now she has the cutest way of writing her name: She made this picture of herself the other day when she was with her sitter.  She's got all the letters but I guess she likes to group things in pairs :D So I am pulling out something that I loved when I was in kindergarten.  If my first attempt is pleasing to Hannah I will try to get it laminated.  In my kindergarten, one of the stations that we could choose was our name.  Our full name was printed (by hand because NO ONE had computers back then and if they did, they had daisy wheel printers) on a long piece of ruled

Follow Friday

I've always been fascinated with Follow Friday on Twitter.  To see who people feel like they can recommend.  Well, I thought it would be nice to try something like that right here!  Well, I must admit that there's another reason I want to do Follow Friday, we celebrate Sabbath that day, which means no hardcore computer time, but I still want you to have something to read when you drop by.  For my first Follow Friday, I would like to introduce you to my friend, Sarah, from The Craig Life !!!  Sarah has a wonderful blog where she shares about her daughter and the real struggles that go along with being a mom to a little one.  I had to describe her blog, I would say that it is a love note to her daughter.  I am so thankful that she gives us a glimpse into that part of her life.  She just became a full time SAHM.  Oh and her photography is fantabulous!  I'm always excited to see her blog show up in my blogger reader, because it's always something wonderful to read!  Follo

Thankful Thursday!

I've always felt like Thursdays are the most overlooked day of the week.  It's not the middle and it's certainly no Friday!  In an attempt to give Thursday a much needed confidence boost, I will try my best to post a Thankful Thursday post each Thursday.  And here's what's even better, thanks to MckLinky, you can add your post to a Thankful Thursday list! I am thankful for: 1. My family, I have the best husband, ever! 2. My church family, they have been so kind and loving, a balm to many wounds 3. Facebook, it lets me build up friendships that might otherwise have been lost forever 4. New beginnings, like this spot on the web! 5. YOU!!  I am ever so thankful for people that actually read my blog! Leave your link with the widget below and we can have big Thankful Thursday Fest!

Things I've learned traveling with a little one

Hannah took her first plane trip when she was about five months old.  Since then she has taken two or three trips a year, including Hawaii, Canada, Texas, South Carolina, and Georgia.  Here are some of the things I grew to love and things I learned 1. When you are taking off with an infant in your lap, it is best to hold them across your chest with their head at your shoulder and their feet at your waist. (I was told this is standard procedure by 1 stewardess and she said it was airline standard, it definitely felt more secure than having her hang out on my lap playing patty cake) 2. Forget the packnplay, instead, look for a Peapod.  They are excellent and take up very little room, like pack in your carry on very little room. 3.  If you have a child that has their own seat (which I recommend always buying if you have the cash to do it) take your carseat along (make sure the sticker says it's FAA approved) and buckle them in.  It keeps you sane and them contained and because

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've been making our laundry detergent for about three years now. It's CHEAP and not difficult. I generally wash three to four loads of laundry a week and one batch of detergent lasts just under six months. My recipe is adapted from The Frugal Shopper , she has a couple of different recipes if you want to check them out. Laundry Detergent 3 quarts Water 1 Bar Fels Naptha Soap, Grated 1 Cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda 1 Cup Borax 5 Gallon Bucket 1 Quart Hot Water Hot Water Mix Fels Naptha soap in a saucepan with 3 quarts of water, and heat until dissolved. Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Stir until thickened, and remove from heat. Add 1 quart hot water to 5 gallon bucket. Add soap mixture, and mix well. Fill bucket almost full with hot water, and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours, or until mixture thickens. Mix the following day.  Use 1/2 cup of mixture per load. You can add essential oils to this, I've used extracts (from the kitchen) with limited to NO ch

Upcoming book reviews

One thing that you often find me doing is reading and lately, I've been scoring on the free books!  You can check out the link to BookSneeze, which is through Thomas Nelson Publishers, but I've also volunteered to review books for The Daring Kitchen!  So here are the two books that I am anxiously waiting to get in the mail!

Thanks for dropping by!

I'm hoping to post something fun real soon.  I ran into some internet problems and decided to get rid of them the easy way, ignoring them and loosing some past archives.  It means that I will hopefully be manually finding somethings on the computer and around the net and adding them here, mainly book reviews.  In the coming days I'm also going to explain this whole HoHa thing :D

Buried Alive by Roy Hallums

This is the true story of Roy Hallums kidnapping, captivity and rescue One of my concerns going into this book is that it might be too gruesome or overly emotional. But what I found was that Roy was able to tell his story with great clarity without striking fear in the heart of the reader. In fact, it is a story that provides great hope. Roy was able to describe in detail that brought one into the world that he was trapped for 311 days. The story is easy to read and well told. He not only reveals his plight, but that of his family as well. He uses excerpts from his daughter's journal and from different interviews that occurred during his kidnapping. His time keeping allowed me to remember what I was doing during his time line. Which really gave his story a life that I did not expect. I also learned a great deal about the culture present in Iraq. His story also gave me renewed respect for our armed forces in Iraq. Their tireless work and the prayers of many people allowed this stor

This is Your Brain in Love

I have learned more about the brain while reading this book than I expected to. Dr. Henslin relies heavily upon the research of Dr. Amen, who uses a SPECT scan to treat patients with behavioral problems. Dr. Henslin talks about five specific behaviors that can have a negative effect on marriage. He goes into what part of the brain is involved in the behaviors based on SPECT scans and then sets forth behavior modification for both members of the marriage. The final part of the book is useful for all marriages by encouraging Biblical virtues. There are also appendix that address diet, sexual addiction and hormonal imbalance. Dr. Henslin does a lovely job of expressing how sex is a spiritual act of marriage. He encourages spouses to be loving towards one another, without being blind to the fact that some pains cannot be overlooked. He addresses those suffering from depression with honesty and love. It is clear that Dr. Henslin's desire is to encourage marriage and healthy love betwee