What we learned this week...

I found this such a big deal. My boog learned how to spell his name. I wondered about putting this up here, since it will reveal his real name, but I figured it will be alright.

Being a Keeper of your Heart

Last night I went to a ladies meeting at my pastors house. My pastors wife had a little study prepared for us. It was really good, I just wanted to share. She had recently been studying Proverbs 4:23--
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

She then told us the meanings she looked up for the key words in the concordance.

Keep--to guard, protect, maintain, obey
Heart--feelings, will, intellect(which is our soul)
Diligence--to guard, watch, to attend to, to save from those who lie in wait
Issues-- boundaries and borders, deliverance

We also went to Jeremiah 17:9-10--"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. "

Our soul is self centered and can bend towards our redeemed spirit or the worldly flesh. I think this is why the above verse is so important. We must "guard, protect and maintain our soul with persevering painstaking effort because out of it our boundaries and borders are set and deliverance is made."

I think that the verse from Jeremiah ties into this, because we must maintain those boundaries around our heart to not only keep things out, but also to keep self centered ugliness reined in.

We went into deeper discussion about these verses and it was a good time of sharpening each other. I always find God's word so amazing when you really get in there and start digging. He is so full of mercy, grace and justice.

How can I be a helpful wife.....

with out being a pushy wife. One of the things I tend to do it over analyze and over organize the way things could be in my mind. (This would be good if I would put that organizing to practical use) This gets me into trouble, because it can leave me feeling discontent with our life.
Gus has many things he talks about doing or would like to do in the future. Sometimes I take those ideas and try to put them into action. Like when he is talking about getting another job, I will start looking for him. I am not sure if this is being helpful or being pushy since he does not directly ask me to look for him?? Or, there are things I would like for us to do together as a family and Gus does not see the need for it. I have to fight down the urge to think that I am more spiritual than my husband. I don't nag, I have seen far more results with submission and prayer for God to lead Gus. These are two of the things I struggle with most as a wife right now. Trying to get Gus's dreams or ideas going for him and keeping my pride in check by making sure I am not sticking my big ole' head out from under my leader and covering.
So back to the original thought, how do I become this wife?

Proverbs 31:10-12-- A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies: Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm all the days of her life.

Some days I feel like I am headed full force in that direction and other days like I have no idea what I am doing.

Just a funny story...

Today Boog was leaning over my legs, we are still in pajamas this morning. He proceeds to tell me "mama move, your legs have spikes". I laughed so hard. I guess that means I need to go pull out the razor and get rid of the "spikes" that are poking my children.

Book Review

Since Boog turned 4 this summer I have been thinking I needed to learn more about vaccinations. It is time for his boosters. Boog was fully vaxed except for flu up until now. Baby girl got everything that they recommend except: Hep A, Rotovirus, Flu and Chicken Pox. I found this book very informative and not from either extreme. She is a doctor that has a Family practice for over 20 years, in Baton Rouge. She is not anti vax, but has concerns over the way they are made and how so many are given at once. She also shows concern for how they become government mandated after not having lots of research, the companies not having to continue research on safety and the government instituting laws that help protect the manufactures from lawsuits. She also goes into those who are "approving" the vaccines for use having a conflict of interest, because many times the people who are approving them have money to be made off of them.

Anyway, I am not extreme either way. Gus and I have decided to selectively vax, Boog and Baby Girl will not be getting any more any time soon. When we are blessed with more children we are going to be very selective in which vaccinations we choose and probably follow a differet time table than the one mandated by the government.

I have a few other vaccination books I am going to be reading. I want to gather as much information as I can on the subject.

We are now 2 weeks into...

our no eating out challenge.  We accomplished another week, with the exception of last night.  Gus wanted to take me on a date, so we did go eat at a resturant.  My mom offered to watch the kids, so we took the chance to get out alone.  That does not happen often, so we decided it would be worth it to break our challenge for that purpose.

I have to say however, that it was harder this week than last to withstand the temptation of eating out.  I swear you must have to detox from the stuff.  It is pretty neat though, because I have been making the things we would usually pick up at home.  Hamburgers last week and pizza is on the menu today.  The only thing I don't really know how to make that we would usually eat is Chianese food.  I guess I need to do a google search for some recipes.  

Making meals stretch

I am always trying to find ways to stretch the meat I buy for our meals.  Meat can be the more expensive part of the meal and if I can find ways to make it into two meals, I am very pleased.  So far I have found left over chicken the easiest to reuse.  One of the things I do is buy a whole cut up chicken and bake it in the oven or in my crock pot.  We usually have a good bit left over, so I will take that out the next night and either cook rice, scrambled eggs, and broccoli then add the left over deboned chicken to it and sort of stir fry it into fried rice.  Or I cook spiral multi-colored noodles, broccoli and add a sundried tomato with pesto sauce to it with the left over chicken and you have pasta.  Both of these are very easy to do and pretty inexpensive.

Recently I tried a new meal.  I bought a whole roasting chicken, cut off all the skin I could, took out all the insides and got it ready to cook in the crockpot.  I made a concoction of one can of cream of mushroom soup and one bag of onion soup mix.  I mixed those two together with around one cup of water.  I just poured over the chicken and cooked it on high for 6 hours.  Well the wings and legs cooked so tender the meat was totally off the bone.  I did not want to waste all that meat in the soupy broth, so I came up with an idea.  After it had cooled completely, I went througth the mixture and took out all the bones and gristle and fat and added any left over meat we had from that night.  The next night all I had to do was make a veggie and some rice and we ate the mixture over rice and it was really good.  So now I have a new way to use my left over chicken.  

If you have any ways you have learned to stretch a meal, please share! :)

The True Blessings from our Children...

Children are a blessing from God, there is no doubt in my mind about that.  Recently I read somewhere that through raising and training them up, they help to sancify us.  That they truely help us work out our salvation daily.  Later I was talking with Gus about this and wondered if I could take that thought a bit farther.  I know that the things that I see in my children that bother or concern me the most are the exact same things I know I need to work out in my own life.  I also know that the best way to teach these things to my children is to be a living example.  So I was thinking that God must have really hand picked my children for me, with certain personalities and charater traits.  He knew before hand who and what I would need to deal with to help get certain dross out of my life.  

I have no scriptural backing for this, they are purely thoughts accumulated in my head.  If they are true, children are the biggest blessings that the Lord could ever give to me.  What an amazing thought to know that these wonderful children have been put here specifically with me and Gus to help us continuly grow in God's grace, mercy and salvation.  

Baby Girl is keeping me on my toes...

This was about 2 weeks ago.  I left her playing in the bedroom to quickly go potty, right next door.  She comes in, I swear, not a minute later and this is what her hair looked like.  She had put globs and globs of vaseline in her hair.  I said "what have you done?", she just raised her shoulders and said "don't know".  I just giggled at her.  Let me tell you that it is no easy feat to get that stuff out of hair.  Mulitple washings and cornstarch and 4 days later it was mostly out.  Of course she did this just days before we were to get pictutes made.  What could I do but laugh at her.  

Then there was today.  We were taking baths before going to a pumpkin patch get together with other homescoolers.  Well I let her out with just a towel while I was getting some clothes on. This is something I do all the time, but should know better since she is not potty trained at all.  I am there standing in my room and she comes and tells me "mama poo poo".  I am thinking no, please no, let this not be true.  There in the middle of the the kids bedroom floor was a big ol' poop. All I have to say is that I am so very thinkful it was not runny.  So in another note to self, no more letting Baby Girl run around naked after bath time.

Psalms 37

I was reading a post over on Generation Cedar that said to go and read Psalms 37.  Well I finally got around to it today.  It is such great scripture to read when you may be wondering about things or things to come.  I tend to worry about a lot of things, it is my nature, a part of me that God deals with on a daily basis.  With all the economic talk and wonder if we may really go into a depression, it is hard not to think of what may happen.  This is a word that we can go and trust in when we are having those worried thoughts.  Here are a few of the ones that stuck out to me.  

37:3-- Trust in the Lord and do good: dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

37:7-- Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their evil schemes.

37:11-13-- But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.  The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

37:18-19 -- The days of the blameless are known to the Lord, and their inheritance will endure forever.  In times of disaster they will not wither; in the days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

37: 23-26--  If the Lord delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.  I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.  They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.

37: 39-40--  The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.  The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.

The whole passage is really good.  If you are having trouble with worry over what the future may hold, read this and meditate on it.  

Burnt Beans and a ruined pot...

Here is what happens when you forget you are cooking supper, while eating a snack with your kids.  The kids and I were enjoying a snack and Gus gets in from work.  I say "you sure do smell like coffee", he says "how did you know I drank coffee at work?".  I said "I could smell you as soon as you came in".  This should have been the first sign that I had forgotten supper, but no still no clue.  Gus and I had a short converstation and he heads up stairs to change.  The burnt coffee smell is just getting stronger and stronger.  That is when it hits me, I jump up and run into kitchen to see my beans burnt and stuck to the pot.  The pot had no hope, I soaked and soaked it but to no avail.  I had to trash it, good thing it was one of my old ones.

Gus was such a sweetheart and made me feel a little better by saying "it is not like you do this all the time". Which is true this is my very first burnt meal and we have been married for 6 years now.  Lesson learned, don't forget cooking beans on the stove while enjoying a snack with your kids.  

The no eating out challenge

Well we have gotten through the first week.  Today starts week two.  I am excited about this.  All I have to say is boy do those advertisments work, everytime I see one I think I want something from that resturant.  So here's to week two and getting through the next 7 days.

Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God

That is the title of the book I finished up last night. It is by Dr. Voodie Baucham. My rating would be 5 out of 5 stars. He nails it right on with scriptural backing on how a Christian family should look and raise (disciple) their children. It stepped all over my feet at times, but I am very glad to have read this truth while our children are still young. I wish I could get Gus to read it, but I got the next best thing. There is a 2 disc dvd set out there that has two of Dr. Baucham's teaching on it, called Children of Caesar. The first has a teaching on educating your children and the other on how a Christian family should run the home. We sat down with a friend this past Friday night and watched those. They go over the main points that are in the book, the book just has more details. I love that he gives it to you straight with out any apologies.
If you are interested in hearing what he has to say you can Google him there are a few places that have his teaching available to listen online. If any of my local friends would like to borrow this or any other books I review, please let me know.

The no eating out challenge....

Gus and I were talking about cutting the amount we eat out for some time. I have come up with the idea to do a 30 day challenge. I want to see if we can go 30 days with out spending to eat out. I know to change bad habits you have to form new ones. I added up this past months eating out when our bank statement came in and I was shocked. It was way more than I would have thought and that did not include the 9 days the kids and I were on vacation with my aunt. We are going to do this week by week. We think it will be more feasible with short term goals to get to the big one.
The biggest challenge will be when the kids and I are out doing errands around lunch time. We usually just swing by a fast food place and pick something up, so I will have to make sure we get to swing by the house or get everything done before lunch. We started on Saturday, so we can mark off the first 3 days.

By doing this, I hope it can be another way for me to show Gus that I can be responsible with our income and his hard work.

CVS and Walgreens..

I have not done a CVS and Walgreens run in about a month.  I spent a bit more than I would have liked, out of pocket today, but I got back just about all of it.  I spent around $46 oop, got back $20 in CVS bucks to spend sometime this month and will be getting a Walgreen's rebate card with around $24 on it.  In the end only $2 for all the above.  If I would not have used up all my CVS bucks last month, my oop total would have been lower.  I used this week to start my CVS love back up and running.  Now I have $20 to play around with.  

The best deal of the day was the Crest toothpaste and Oral B toothbrush.  If you have the P&G coupons for this month go do this deal now.  They are both on sale for $1.99 this week, then there is a $1 off coupon for each of them in the montly Walgreens coupon booklet.  That brings them both down to $.99 each.  Well the P&G has a $1.00 off Crest toothpaste bringing that to $-.01 total and it also has an Oral B one for $.75 bringing that total to $.24.  So you can get a big tube of toothpaste and toothbrush for around 25 cents.   Just make sure you pick up the correct ones that are on sale.  My Walgreens had them marked.  The toliet paper I picked up was a good price as well.  It is on sale this week at Walgreens for $4.00 then in the monthly Walgreens booklete there is a $1.00 off, making that double 6 pack $3.00.