We've Been Busy!

In addition to having an open house yesterday, we have shown the house several times this week. Hopefully, someone will present us a WONDERFUL offer on our house and we will be living in the country soon :0)

I have been working on several small stitchery projects - I can put them up quickly if we get a call to show the house. They will all be heading out the door as gifts in the weeks to come. If you buy my house, I will give you one!!!

We had a special blessing today. We babysat a precious 16 month old for a few hours. She has been removed from her very young and very immature mother and placed with friends of ours. They will have her for a few weeks, and then CPS will decide what to do permanently. I would adopt her in a second - she is a precious baby. We will hopefully keep her one afternoon a week. Isn't she a cutie!

Madelyn bought new slippers at the dollar store today which started a morning long episode of "dress up." Molly is a princess - Mason is a .....?

Our Missy is at youth camp as a counselor this week. She didn't sleep at all last night because she had to leave the house at 2:30 this morning to start picking up girls. The bus left at 4:00 am! I bet she is one tired darlin' by the time she gets home on Thursday. We love that girl!

Have a wonderful start to your week!

Amazing Mason - Goofy Garden

Mason worked a new and very hard (all green) puzzle this morning. Can you tell he is a proud guy? He is absolutely amazing - I marvel at all he has learned in one short year.

Our garden has me a little muddled. The pumpkins are about 2 months ahead of schedule, and everything else is behind. Maybe in December we will be eating corn and tomatoes :0)

I am thankful we started out with a small garden this year. We are learning a lot about what NOT to do next year!

Blogging (and everything else) has been a little hard with our house on the market. Trying to keep everything looking like we don't live here is making all of us a tad grumpy. Thank goodness for Memaw and Granddaddy who live a few blocks away. We can retreat to their house when we get weary of cleaning this one.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mary

Ouch! - My Achin' Toes

One of the many things I love about God is that He can use the familiar to teach something new to me. I have read the following verse many times, but today God used it to step on my toes a little.

2 Kings 17:41 says, "So while the nations feared the Lord, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day."

I confess that every time I heard a sermon on idols, I felt a little smug. I don't like TV, don't overshop or overspend (usually :), don't place my children before my marriage..... But apparently my "alone" time has become something I am clinging to a little too tightly.

I began to see some areas in my life that I didn't like to be intruded on. While I love for my children to join me when I read my Bible, I wanted MY computer time alone, MY quilting time alone, MY alone time to be alone.......see a trend developing here?

Just another reminder to me that I need God's help every minute, or I slip off the deep end very quickly. I don't want my children to feel like intrusions - I want to enjoy them in every situation.

Aren't you glad we have God's Word to keep us on track?

I'll Say it Again...

I know I say this about every season, but....I love this time of year!!!! We are loving our tiny (and so far unproductive) garden. What a joy to look out in the back yard and see the pumpkin vines growing up the fence. The little ones found ONE ripe strawberry last week, and it was so fun watching them trying to split it 3 ways.

The realtors toured our home this morning. I get stressed out everytime we sell a house and they come through. Some of them are sooooooo critical and nit-picky. Now we wait for the horde of buyers to come :0)

I am going to sit down, drink a big glass of peach tea, and enjoy my VERY clean house!

The Power of Words

I don't feel particularly powerful this morning, but I am. No, I haven't been working out at the gym (although I need it!). The great power I possess is in the words I speak to my family and to others.

I love the book of Luke. In chapter 1, there are two beautiful examples of parents (Mary and Zacharius) speaking life over their children and future generations. Did you know that your words live on for generations? - wow!

I have a dear friend who has written down hundreds of Bible verses and keeps them on index cards. Several times a day she picks them up and prays those words out loud over her marriage, her husband, herself and her children. I love that! I now have my own cards that I have laminated and use. I love speaking God's blessing over my family.

I want to be so mindful of what comes out of my mouth today. Am I speaking encouragement or frustration over my sweet husband? What about my finances? My health? My precious children? A verse that God brings to my mind almost daily is Luke 6:45 which ends with these words: out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

My prayer for today is that my heart will overflow with God's love - that my heart will spill over through my words to touch everyone I see.

It's Official!

We have made the big leap and listed our house. The sign will go in the yard on Monday. And, no.....we haven't found another house to move to...aaaghh! I really am not worried about being "homeless". We NEVER know exactly where we are moving when we list a house, and it always turns out great.

We will have a busy weekend making sure everything around our house is sparkling by Monday morning. Because we move fairly often, several people in our family haven't seen this house after the remodel. Here are some "after" pictures. Trust me, you DO NOT want to see the before pictures!

Have a wonderful weekend. Michael and Matt - we love you bunches!

My $6 Love

I'll admit that in the past I had a small kitchen appliance fetish, but I repented and gave many of them away. I have really, really tried recently to buy only the "hand-cranked" variety of kitchen gadgets, but........ When I saw this brand new, still in the box pasta machine of my dreams for only $6, I knew I had to bring it home. Last night, I made fresh lasagna noodles and yummy lasagna. I never seem to get a picture of what I cook before my big family devours it, so just imagine that it was the most beautiful lasagna you have even seen.

I almost hate to admit it, but I also bought a brand new, still in the box food dehydrator for $5 to replace my old cracked one. Now my appliance pantry is brimming over again, and I have some serious explaining to do :0)

We are listing our house tonight, so my days will now be filled with homeschooling and trying to keep our house clean. I think the farmhouse of my dreams sold yesterday, so be praying that we can find something wonderful that will bless everyone in our family.

Have a wonderful week!

Aren't We Gorgeous!

We had a sweet 4th of July. Randy worked on painting the trim on the house, I cooked some our son Matthew's favorite foods, and the little ones enjoyed the beautiful day outside. We joined Memaw and Granddaddy at our favorite "fireworks watching" parking lot about 9:00 and waited for the excitement to begin. We might not live in a large city, but the fireworks were wonderful!

I am a preschool minister at our small church. Tonight the children are learning about the story of Jesus healing Bartimaeus' eyes. I brought home a big bucket of sunglasses from the preschool closet to work on a craft and lookie what was in it!

Maybe the World's Best Blueberry Muffins

OK - I haven't tried every recipe out there for blueberry muffins, but these are so wonderful that I am only going to use this recipe from now on. This is my version of a recipe I found online at allrecipes.com. I modified it a little, and here it is!!!!!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Combine:
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 t salt
2 t baking powder

Stir together in a 1 cup measuring cup:
1 beaten egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
add milk until the measuring cup is full (approximately 1/3 cup)

Stir the egg/oil/milk together with the dry ingredients and then fold in
2 cups blueberries (I used fresh)

Fill muffins tins 2/3 full and then add the topping

Topping:
mix together and spoon on the tops of uncooked muffins -
1/2 cup brown or white sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, crumbled
1 1/2 t cinnamon

Bake 18-22 minutes and enjoy!!!!
(makes 12 muffins)

The "Fruits" of My Labors

Everytime I see a blog where someone is picking blueberries, strawberries, or any fruit, I get a wee bit envious. Our small garden has yet to produce an edible thing, and berries just don't do very well where we live. God must have been tired of hearing me whine, because He sent mountains of berries to my local "cheap" grocery store! I came home yesterday with blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, melons and more. Then I looked at my kitchen counter that was overflowing and knew that I had work to do :0)

I canned for the first time this week. We now have apricot preserves, strawberry jelly, and a freezer full of blueberries and more. I also made the yummiest blueberry muffins I have ever eaten in my entire life! (I will post the recipe later today - you DO want to make these!) At the end of the day, I had beautiful jars of jelly in my pantry, fuit in the freezer, my kitchen was a wreck, and I was a happy girl.

This morning when I got up early to walk, I realized that God had sent the most beautiful rain last night. The sunrise was stunning, and everything even smelled wonderful. What a glorious way to start the day.

I am going to drink some coffee, eat a blueberry muffin, stand in my pantry and look at the new jars of jelly, hug my precious husband and children, and thoroughly enjoy my day!

Here are pictures of yesterday's work and this morning's beauty.