Blog Links To Interesting Things...

www.allposters.com - Merchant Ship

First let me say Thanks for your prayers yesterday - I had a great day and besides normal craziness for a first day - co-op went great.

As I make my way through blogland daily I find so much encouragement. It is a blessing to find likeminded friends, keep up with family and learn about new things and meet new people.

As I have a huge grocery gathering day ahead of me, I thought I would share some of my favorite posts with you.

Brenda at Coffee, Tea, Books and Me has been reposting her past "Recession Ponderings." I am linking to #3 from yesterday but all of them are filled with such good things. Her blog is always an encouragement! If you leave a comment tell her you found her through my post!

Stacy at Your Sacred Calling has a good post on sharing your convictions without coming across as legalistic! You can find it here.

Miss Paula at Gathering of Friends is having a 900 post giveaway! Go see what she is giving away, and tell her congratulations! Tell her you found out about it from her sister in law!

Melissa at The Missionary Mama is celebrating the 1st birthday of our adorable great nephew - her second born son! Go wish Ethan a very happy birthday!

Tracy at Unless the Lord is doing a photo challenge today! Go see the awesome photos she has taken!

Well, I need to run, well, drive all over the county today. It is alot of work but I do enjoy this day out.

School Days, School Days...

www.allposters.com - Early Schoolroom in Colonial New England

We start our co-op again today. It is always great to see everyone after a break, and my kids love their classes. Our co-op is not an academic focused group although we do have classes like literary analysis, lab classes etc. We consider ourselves a supplemental classes group. We offer gym and music, art, science classes, geography, electives for upper grade students. Subjects that are fun to study in larger groups. Our classes are all parent taught.

For me, as the head of the co-op, I feel a tad worn already due to some difficult issues we needed to address over the break. I accept fully that in leadership there is no glory, just expectations that often are unattainable. As the leader of a Christian group, I sometimes feel I am supposed to deal with everything perfectly and if I am treated unkindly, well, I am supposed to deal with it without being offended. I am never to have hurt feelings, etc...

That may sound a tad cynical, but I don't mean it to be. It is just truth. Often times we have higher expectations for our leaders than we have for ourselves. The Lord calls for us to pray for our leaders - I understand why - it's so desperately needed!

So this morning, I have been praying for our group...for wisdom, for grace, for the teachers to enjoy their students, and students to enjoy their classes. I am praying for blessing on the church we have meet in since our group started. I am praying for the wonderful committee of ladies who oversee the various aspects of our co-op day, thus allowing it to flow and function relatively smoothly!

I have been praying for me, too. That I will be energized and be filled with joy and grace. Oh and wisdom too. That's an important one! So needed!

Will pray you for me today and for our group? I want our days of co-op to be a testimony for the Lord.

Aaron's Clothes

I was reading over at Amy's Humble Musings today and read this guest post by her husband Greg. It was really good and I thought you might be encouraged to read it.

An Ordinary Day

www.allposters.com Mother and Child - Carl Holsoe

Just an ordinary day for us here yesterday.

Tim went off to work and I got up. I woke Lindsay and she went out to feed the horses and let the dogs out for their morning run around the property. I decided to make waffles, something I rarely do. It was simple and so fun to have the surprise ready for the kids when they got up. I had my laptop at the kitchen table to check my email and read blogs while making the waffles and when Lindsay came back inside we both made waffles and chatted. We have had a fire going in the woodstove almost constantly, and it really helps keep the house warm. It is in the basement and the kids are warm down there while playing and watching movies. We were really pleased with how warm it kept the house last year and even more pleased when we had our propane refilled this year to find we only used half of our propane! What a blessing!

After the younger girls ate breakfast, I sent them in to work on their bedroom. It is a small space with two girls with lots of 'treasures' and quickly gets cluttered. We also decided we would move the bed away from the outside wall for the winter. This will insure they don't get cold in the night.

Lindsay was on laundry patrol yesterday and while she was working on various things on the computer, she kept the laundry moving. That was a huge blessing to us. The kids did schoolwork and then in the late afternoon, Lindsay, Emily and I made dinner. Rachel and Sarah helped a bit too.

I knew that I was going to cook beef and noodles for dinner, but what to have with it? So I mentioned to Lindsay, our resident biscuit maker, that the new video from Franklin Springs of the West Ladies called "The Art of Cooking" had a great recipe for buttermilk biscuits. So we put that dvd in my laptop and watched them make them and then used their recipe and technique to make them. They turned out amazing! Better than Cracker Barrel's buttermilk biscuits! Tall, flaky, yummy!

Rachel and Sarah asked to watch a different West Ladies video - The Art of Canning. They like to learn how to do the things we 'older' women in the family are doing and interested in! We really like this set of videos and find they are way more practical than Martha Stewart.

While Lindsay was making biscuits, Emily and I peeled about five sweet potatoes and I sliced and boiled them. Emily made the beef and noodles. We take beef that has been cut into cubes and dredge them in flour and salt and pepper. We lightly brown them in oil then add water, minced onion, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and beef bouillon to finish cooking the meat. It makes fantastic gravy! We serve it over noodles or brown rice! So good!

When the sweet potatoes were done cooking, I whipped them like I do my mashed potatoes, but I added brown sugar, cinnamon, and heavy whipping cream in addition to butter. They tasted wonderful, sort of like our sweet potato casserole without the topping.

After dinner we had family worship time, we are studying the book of Acts, and the younger kids recited their memory verses. Then it was clean up time for both the kitchen and people!

Before the kids went to bed we had a huge laundry folding party and it was all quickly put away. The young ones tucked into bed. My tired husband off to bed, and me soon after.

We woke a little after 12:00 am to an alarm going off somewhere in the house. It turned out to be Rachel's clock radio. We guess that somehow it got set during the furniture move around in their room yesterday...it didn't even wake them! Heading back to bed I noticed that the older girls light was on and found them talking and knitting still! Don't know what time they went to sleep!

I love days like that - full of everyday activity. The life of the home and of the family.

I read the following poem on a blog yesterday - sorry I don't remember which one.

'To live content with small means;

To seek elegance rather than luxury,

and refinement rather than fashion;

To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich;

To study hard, think quietly,

Talk gently,

Act frankly;

To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages,

with open heart;

To bear all cheerfully,

Do all bravely,

Await occasions,

Hurry never.

In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,

grow up through the common.

This is to be my symphony.'

William Henry Channing

Scenes From A Quick Trip, And Some Serious Thoughts

Friday was a beautiful, freezing cold day here in Pennsylvania. Not too long into the trip Rachel, seeing her sisters snapping away with their cameras, asked for mine and away she went!

When the whole family is riding in the car together the little folk get the far back bench seat. Here Rachel is showing you of Kyle getting all sugared up! What kind of parent in their right mind would let a four year old have a push pop knowing we would all be in the car for about 3 more hours?

Here Sarah looks like she is pleading for mercy....

The day was sunny on the first part of the trip...but did I mention it was cold? It was. Really cold. Think wind chill, you'll know I mean cold.

Our intrepid driver...and Miss Emily who always sits behind the driver, no matter who is driving. She has staked out 'her side.' She knows how to pass the time in the car. Lots of knitting, reading, photography. She is a great traveler.

Then there is this one. The new adult. She almost always has her camera ready....She and Emily were also in charge of the cooler. With all the drinks, lunch, ice etc...One thing to know about our family, regardless of the temperature we still must have our ice in our drinks! Especially me! They also were in charge of the bag of snacks. Things like Swiss Rolls and trail mix. You know the healthy stuff.

I think it is interesting to see the kids develop their artistic eye. Lindsay's hair clip is very pretty and caught Rachel's attention...

Oooh, self portrait...she needs some work on angles perhaps...

Aaaah, a fierce creature has been unleashed in the van....must be the sugar!

She loves her brother...really...she is thinking of squishing his head like a bug!

Our trip to the Western side always takes us through cool mountain tunnels!

Get to the Somerset area and the day changed to snow...it wasn't snowing heavily, and the roads were clear. It had been snowing for several days however, and the trees were coated!

Saturday morning in the hotel room. The big girls and I were watching t.v. While the little ones burned of a little energy...

What kind of mother encourages her children to do such wild things in the hotel? Seriously, jumping from one bed to the other....well, it did allow them to be very calm when we went over to Aunt Marylou's house again...

She was so happy to see everyone. She and Marcia insisted on making dinner for Friday even though we told them not to do it. Aunt Marylou is sneaky though. She waiting until we were just a few hours away on Friday and called Tim's cell to tell us! We were happy to see her and visit with her. She enjoys the kids, and we had some encouraging talks. Her youngest son and daughter have been a real testimony to us all in caring for their parents. Now that Aunt Marylou is alone, one of them spends the night with her. Every night. They hang out with her daily and her daughter Marcia knows all her medications and appointments. What a blessing they are to their sweet mother. She is a momma through and through though, and has a hard time not being the one doing the care giving...but as Marcia told her the other day 'Mother, you took care of us all our lives. Now it's your turn for us to take care of you.' If only every elderly person were this blessed. What a difference it would make in the lives of our senior citizens!

Helping Our Kids To Learn Discernment

Lady of Virtue has an excellent post with guidelines for helping us to discern what kinds of things are being communicated in books, movies, music. You know questions to ask ourselves about it.

Her post got me thinking about how we learn to discern what is good, or rather what is excellent. There are lots of good things out there that we can spend our time on but with our time at a premium I like to try for those things which are the best use of my time.

I have always preread books that I was going to give to my children to read. This allowed me to discuss it with them and to be able to ask good questions to see what they were comprehending. It also helped me when someone gave a series of books to one of my daughters when she was twelve. They were popular books, and this persons daughter had loved them. The mom was so thrilled her daughter was reading for pleasure. But as I read them, I was embarrassed at the adult themes and discussions in the books and amazed that this was popular youth literature. I talked to the mom who was shocked! She had not read them and felt awful that her daughter had!

Now many would say 'well, our children are exposed to much worse at school, or work etc...' but I ask you, does that make it ok? What should our measuring guide be? This isn't as bad as that, so it is alright?

This is a real challenge as our children get older...much of what my girls read, I have already read. They are getting to an age where my husband says that they must choose for themselves what they are going to allow into their minds, through music, books, movies, television. He's right. They are adults or nearly adults and we aren't always going to be able to preview everything. So how do we go about helping our young adults and children learn to be discerning?

One thing we do is talk - a lot! When we watch stuff we ask questions from the time that they are young - "what was that movie about?" "what world view were they teaching?" "Was that dad protecting his family?" "were they showing love to one another? What was the result?" These kinds of questions help our children to view media with a discerning eye.

What kinds of guidelines or things do you use in your families to help you to be discerning with media? I love to learn from you all.

An Unexpected Trip

We are making an unexpected trip to Western PA to visit Tim's aunt. I hope she is ready because the kids are coming with all their loving and cheerfulness! She will have a good time with them!

We are looking forward to it, it is a quick trip, just one overnight. I am thankful for my parents who are coming to care for our animals and for my children who love an adventure and love their great auntie and are looking forward to seeing her.

She is a precious woman with a loving heart. She has had a hard year. Her oldest son died a year ago Thanksgiving time, and then earlier this year her husband of 63 years died. She still lives in the home they raised their children in. She is blessed to have wonderful children, who take turns staying with her at night. What a blessing they are to her - allowing her to stay in her own home.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Our Time Away

We had a really special time away. My parents were able to join us so that made for 9 people in a 2 bedroom cabin! We doubled up the kids and Emily chose the couch so we all fit. Tip for next time - bring padding for the beds! A little tough sleeping on a rock!

Otherwise the facilities are very nice. Here are some shots of our time away.

This sweet boy was there!

Settlers....
Sarah learned to play rummy...

Emily and Grandma before our walk...

Lindsay loved it all - she, Tim and Emily went on a long hike in the afternoon! They were cold when they got back but had an awesome time!

The winter sky was so beautiful!

We all bundled up for a walk on Tuesday. It was sooo cold. We had fun though at a play area - wait until the girls post their photos of us jumping off the swings and walking on the ice on the lake....

Before we headed home today we went to nearby Hopewell Furnace. We were the only ones there...I guess you need to be crazy to be out in this cold...that lets you know a bit about us, especially when history is available to be experienced!

When the weather is nicer there are lovely volunteers here (not in January or February, but if you go during these months it is free to get in!) showing how they used to make pig iron. They also used to make stoves, and cannons!

This water wheel is very important to the process because the water pressure would power the bellows...isn't it huge?

This kind volunteer was impressed with the kids...they all earned their Junior Ranger badges today! He liked teasing them, and was impressed that Sarah knew why they called it 'pig iron'. Do you know why? When they were making iron to sell to other places to either refine it more or to make it into other items, they made it in long bars of iron...it would pour out and come down this trench and into the bar molds off of the trench...it sort of looked like a sow nursing piglets...so they called it 'pig iron.'

We had a lovely time disconnected for a few days....I read mostly and played some rummy and of course Clue! Can't wait to do it again!

Heading Out For A Few Days

www.allposters.com

I will be a way for several days - at a cabin in the woods. We are going to celebrate Lindsay's birthday. She is such an outdoors woman, but with her birthday is January it makes it hard to do go camping etc...so we decided that this year we would try renting a cabin. Our state parks have cabin rentals and January is 'off season' so it is really affordable!

We have never rented a cabin here before so when I get back I will tell you how it went. I grew up tent and trailer camping in the West and Tim grew up in Africa. Our missions training 20 years ago involved us building a house in the woods - out of trees and landscaping plastic! It was a neat experience because it taught you that you can make a home anywhere!

When we get back, we have to get back to our normal routine of school and work. I am looking forward to that even though it will be hard to leave all our celebrating behind!

A Cold Anniversary

Of course I am talking about the weather and not our relationship!

The high today was maybe 25 degrees with high winds, which of course make the temperature even colder! brrrrr

We spent the day in Historic Kennett Square. There are lots of great antique places, bookstores, restaurants...

We had checked out the town on the web, having been told by a friend that this is a neat town to check out. We have always driven past on Hwy 1 on our way to Longwood Gardens, but had never spent anytime in the town.

The first place we went was called "The Brick Garage." The owner was a lovely lady who is very creative - her antiques business is called 'Pack Rats Place' she says because she can't throw anything out! She repurposes items in very interesting ways. She also has a beautiful indoors room that makes you think you are sitting outdoors and their is a beautiful fireplace in there as well. We enjoyed the warmth of her welcome and our time at her place.

We poked around a furniture store that was so big, it just went on and on! Then we were hungry for some lunch as neither of us ate any breakfast before heading out. We chose to try The Country Butcher. They have a cafe and bakery. We both loved poking around through the whole store - lots of specialty food items - and chose to eat Ribeye sandwiches on toasted rolls, basil mayo, lettuce, tomato...it was divine! We highly recommend it!

We then went to work off lunch by checking out some bookstores. RLD Books is a small but nice bookstore that immediately hooked me with their lovely collection of children's books. The owner was a lovely woman who told us that her son recently told her - a bookstore owner - that he bought a 'Kindle'! We all had a good laugh about that! I almost bought Rachel a Marguerite Henry book. It is a perfect fit - a girl who loves horses and loves to read. But I decided that the book at $25 for an old edition, while lovely, it was too much for our budget and I don't want to buy a 10 year old a book that has to be handled so carefully because it costs so much! I will buy her a new copy of this book that she can toss in her backpack and bring along with her when we go places!

We then walked across the street and went to Thomas Macaluso's Rare and Fine Books. No twaddle here! This is not a store that carries old paperbacks of romance novels etc...(neither does RLD Bookstore either!) Thomas Macaluso carries stunning books - OLD books, RARE books. Books that have long term value and interest. We were in awe. It was a treat to see the books he had, and the maps he carried also - wow!

After this we drove around West Chester. We like to check out new places, but it was so cold we decided that this would be a place that we visit another day!

Then we headed out to dinner.

It was a lovely day with warmth and affection shared by the two of us who after 22 years still enjoy one another's company! I love this man that the Lord so graciously gave me for a husband. He has stretched me and challenged me to live a life of serving the Lord and others. He has been a true friend and companion. I pray that I have been a helpmeet to him, that he has been as blessed by our marriage, as I have been!

We Are In The Middle Of Our Week Of Celebrations

Actually, it starts right before Christmas with Tim's birthday on the 24th! But this year it is extended because we are taking the first few days of next week to go to a cabin as part of celebrating Lindsay's birthday!

She is such an outdoors woman that we knew she would love a chance to go camping as a special part of celebrating. Huge problem for her is that her birthday is January 1st! Solution? Renting a cabin in a state park! We are really looking forward to spending a few days in the woods and hike. We are so proud of our new adult. She is mature, responsible, helpful, kind. She is loyal and a good and faithful friend. She loves her family, including all aunties and uncles and cousins!

Tomorrow Tim and I will leave the household in her capable hands and spend the day away - just enjoying each other. I am so thankful that after 22 years he is still my best friend! We were talking about the day we got married and we both said that while there may have been nerves about the ceremony, there were no second thoughts at all about marrying!

Sunday is church, of course, and it is a fellowship meal week - so we will have a meal together after church and hang out until 3:00 pm or so. Then often we will head over to someones house for the rest of the afternoon into the evening. These are fun days that really help us to know our church family!

I took no photos last night - just enjoyed talking and laughing with the dear friends who came...it was so fun to introduce people to each other and see them discover all they had in common and see long, enjoyable talks together...to see big girls, playing with little ones and helping them make jewelry, to see a wee little lady discover a new baby doll with a blanket and carry the baby around so carefully! Sweet! The young men played for hours together on the Wii, which Grandpa kindly brought over to share. Some left before midnight, having some miles to go, but many stayed, though they were really dying to be home in bed sleeping! We are so blessed by the Lord to be given such wonderful friends to share our lives with. There were about 26 people besides our own family. We were full to overflowing and it was great!

I know Emily and Lindsay, who are still getting their beauty sleep, both took photos, so I will encourage them to put them on their blogs to share with you all.

As each year goes by, I become more aware of how it is all about the Lord and learning to walk closer to Him. I do have some things I hope to accomplish in the New Year, praying about it...

If I don't get a chance to post for a few days, know that we are celebrating! Hope you are too!