Faith by Works

I am thrilled to tell you my experience. I know that it will just seem as "that's nice" to some, but to others that have been there-I know you'll understand my excitement!!

"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;"
Titus 1:2

"For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."
II Corinthians 1:20

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Romans 10:17

Now I read my Bible out loud to myself. I had rarely ever understood completely what I read until now. It's like someone finally fitted my brain with the decoder card!! I have been so blessed to read and understand. So all yous out there that read your bible...read it OUT LOUD!

What Does BUSY Mean To You?

This is the Ellis Family. I found it online. No relation. I just thought for an old picture, they have approximately the age distance, same birth order and number of children. Just for fun!

I've been busy. I've been over here knitting! There's the knitting, schooling, cleaning, cooking, rearing, feeding, obeying, disciplining, exercising, eating/drinking and all other everyday things I may have forgotten!

I was just digging through my boxes of books & I have so many language books!! We'll be starting with 3 easy languages: Spanish, German and Sign Language. The other languages I have are: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Japanese, Russian and Short Hand. We could learn a language per year!!

I also found my music books. I'll start with Music Education in the Elementary School 1944-I have another 1/2 dozen music books. I have a bag of rhythm things as well as a recorder since #1 wanted to learn to play the flute. We've already used the McGuffey First Eclectic Reader and we'll review that and move up to the Second Eclectic Reader and I need to incorporate the Handwriting for each lesson! I'm still looking for my English Grammar book, I'll find it soon-I know where it is!

Now I'm waiting on:

Science - Rod & Staff Grade 2

Social Sciences- Rod & Staff Grade 2

Math - Saxon Math 2 (did get Saxon Math K, 1, & 3 so I'll have some foundational work for the babies (1, 2.5 &4) and then seeing how well the older two go through Math 2, I have 3 ready'n'waiting :NO, not new>eb.ay used!)

This will be for the 2 oldest and I'll be starting all 5 children in a learning schedule!! I'll let the 4 month old (yup, he's that big already) wait a little bit before catching up with his siblings.

Just like cloth diapers, I won't have much to buy for each child that goes through this curriculum!!!

I, like every mother out there that spends time & teaches her children, know where my children are academically. I can see where I haven't pushed them AT ALL and they catch on to concepts and ideas well. So, when I teach them, they'll be learning more efficiently and if I ever push them (encourage them to do more) they will excel! Last year was our "practice" year & we did the minimum and they advanced tremendously. This year is our "real" year for our oldest as far as scheduling, record keeping and subjects; but-you know, I just realized that we homeschool from birth. Subject closed.

**If you haven't figured out by now, I was homeschooled. Only 9th thru 12th and then I continued with a few subjects for several years after. I loved it so much more than any other schooling I ever had!! (I've been to Public, Catholic, Private Christian and Homeschool) I helped my parents along with my two younger brothers to set up several state homeschool conferences, then went on to teach a few violin students and played in 4 local orchestras. (My Lord Jesus gets credit for that talent, I just used it) I worked for almost two years in a violin shop before I was married and started another country!! (see above picture)

Did I mention that I fell in love with the violin after seeing the movie,

"And They Shall Have Music"

I started playing at age 14 and still play for my children.

Go here for more homeschooling mom's pages!

And We're Back!

Sorry about that gap in blogging. My computer would NOT log into Bl.ogger, G.m.ail or even Go.ogl.e!! My computer super brother fixed everything-remotely!! My #1 was laughing, moving the mouse trying to mess him up! Extra big hugs to him!!

Ok, now to the blog...ya know, real life!!

I wanted to share my other cake/muffin-thing recipe. It was so good that when I ate the leftovers I was surprised it came out of my oven!! Ok, here goes...

2 cups flour

1 1/4 TBS baking pwd

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 TBSP orange peel

1/4 cup butter or coconut oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup yogurt (homemade)

1/2 orange juice

1/2 cup honey

Blend orange peel in the orange juice. Mix dry ingredients, add liquids, mix well til nothing is dry. Put in GREASED pan. Cook at 400F degrees for 20 mins. Watch/check your cake the last 2-5 mins depending on your oven temps.

It doesn't taste like ginger, but it does have a strong orange flavor that is just naturally wonderful!! Please enjoy with your favourite beverage!

I have also been contemplating whether or not to continue with the Thankful Thursday or Then Sings My Soul Saturday. I don't blog regularly (barring the week of clothes) and I missed Thursday & would like to spend all of tomorrow outside. If I do continue, it may end up being Thankful Everydays and Singing to the Lord!

Okie dokie, what else? Not much here. I plan, Lord willing, to knit more & write up patterns and therefore blog less. We'll see. Hope you're enjoying the last days of summer break. I have school to start & projects to plan to keep everyone happy, busy and learning without realizing it!! Maybe I'll let you know what I'm doing for school, once I get it going. I have some great ideas from my big sis & am so ready to start!

K, nuthing else here. Ciao.

Last of the Clothes

I want to thank Nancie for the awards/recognition/friendship. It was truly kind to include me!! I want everyone that visits my site to go ahead and be included in the sharing of friendship. Copy to your computer the pictures and add to your blog. You can let me know, if you like!!This will be my last installment of clothing pictures. This is a maternity top, but it never fit when I was expecting, so I wear it now & it's just empire waisted and long! Both items were found at garage sales for "pennies". It's all polyester, but for cool days it's perfect & feminine! #1 put on the top & shoes and came to show me. It looked like a nice knee-length dress, just too cute!

SUNDAY

I was thinking about doing something along these lines of clothes for a week: my house. Going room by room & taking pictures. But it would not be a daily thing *giggle* as my whole house is not always ready for pictures. Ok, rarely even one room is ready!! I thought it would be a great way to clean and organize the house and get things done!! I'll let you know when I get to that. I'm telling you now so I can be held accountable!! It is Fall cleaning time, just before the school year starts, I think this is what I need! I am blogged out!! I am not an everyday blogger. I've spent way too much time online & look forward to a much quieter week. I hope to keep up with the Thankful Thursdays and Then Sings My Soul Saturdays. Other than that, I'm going to get some constructive work done with my hands!

Ciao for now!

Singing Clothes (can't come up with anything witty right now)

THURSDAY/FRIDAY

Here's what I wore the past two days. (You might even see the smudges of dirt and little muddy handprint) Another O.ld Na.vy T-shirt and a pair of wideleg slacks again folded to just below the knee. (If I fold it higher, it's a little dorky looking-my preference)
We played outside lots in the dirt, water & running around in the orchard playing dodgeball. We came in & were kinda late in putting the children to bed. The youngest 2 were asleep & the others in their beds "visiting" when I walked out of my room and saw it. A BAT!!
Haven't I had enough of these??!! I didn't scream and freak out & dh was home, so he took things to block the bat's way to lead it to the open window and door, but them critters are fast! The children obeyed and stayed in their room & I ducked in and out of our room. It finally went out through the window. Praise the Lord. When I first saw it, I was shaking, trembling & I knew I didn't have to be afraid. We told it to go outside and prayed and I felt better. When it was all done & we cleaned up (just normal picking up & turning fans back on) I was exhausted! I sat with dh, he prayed for me & I didn't do anything else. Went to bed a little earlier than usual, but #6 was awake and fussy-strangely not the way he is at all!! And #5 came to our bed (she's only slept through the night in her own bed the previous night) and tossed and turned. I knew I wouldn't be able to function when I was up with #4 at 7 in the morning (but did see a beautiful red/orange sunrise-and now it has already rained & it's overcast) & slept maybe an hour more.

This morning I made eggs with sliced carrots and scot oatcakes:

3 cups oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 TBLS coconut oil
2 TBLS honey
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients & let sit for a couple of minutes. This begins the breakdown process of the oats & will stick together. I form palm-sized patties (smaller than hamburgers) close to 1/4" to 1/2" & place on a cookie sheet (ungreased). Cook for 12-15 mins. at 350F degrees. (less time is softer & longer gets it crunchier)

Oh yeah...it's Saturday!! (Scratch that, Sunday now!) Ok, a song. I just received the request for Jesus Loves the Little Children. ooooh, and O, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus! It's sung by one woman and I was able to sing along. It's so refreshing switching from alto to tenor (sung an octave higher than written)!!


I didn't sleep too well last night. But I was in constant prayer!
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
2 Timothy 1:7
I was thinking of the bat & remembering when we had bats (around 1/2 dozen) for a few nights 6 years ago! There were no more, Praise the Lord and I was able to get up earlier, before anyone else & exercise & shower & start b'fast!!

Since my computer was not connecting to the internet yesterday, here's the next set in the series:

SATURDAY

Yet another T-shirt with a navy color "cargo" style knit jersey skirt. This is of the storm that rolled in yesterday & has made it much cooler 75-80F with a LOT less humidity!! I'm considering putting on a sweater!

This is one of my longest posts, so I will end here without formalities.

Privacy Policy & Phone Connections

I just want to let you all know what I will post and what I won't in regards to names. If you are not comfortable with leaving your real name, leave a "nickname" and if I know you, then email me. Even really simple: Hi, this is Suzy and my nickname is RedHead.
If you are saying family names of mine, I won't post it. Sorry, but I must draw the line somewhere. If you've left a comment that you don't want here...you ARE able to delete it yourself. (I'm thankful for that blogger feature!) It hurts to delete comments so please be general if speaking of my family or just email me.

For Family: I probably call my mommy the most. Next is my mommy-in-law. So, you can see, we are not on the phone people. All that taken into consideration, I expect (Lord willing and we can actually schedule it!!) to be calling my sis-in-law #1 & we'll probably talk for a few hours, but we haven't spoken to each other in almost a year. (I don't even know if I spoke with her or if it was my brother after baby #6 was born-I was so weak and tired!) We've barely even emailed . We both know that we are very busy with many children & are still learning to get things done for our families. My main computer time is after the children are all asleep, as I've said before, it can be as late as 10 or 10:30P and then I have all my work to catch up on, exercise, shower, Bible reading/listening so I'm up mainly working til 1 to 3 in the morning.

I would love to schedule calling everyone and keeping in touch, but that is not practical. That is why I started the blog. There are too many people to be calling & returning calls. I'm sorry if this offends, but I must obey & get my work done. When I am on the phone it interrupts my day & keeps me from caring for my children and husband. Dh is also busy & relies on my blog to keep family up to date.

So you know: my phone can be very quirky. I've just found all the information to check messages, though I don't do that often. The caller id sometimes comes up and sometimes not.

There you go. Now I've devoted naptime to tell you and I didn't get the business things done. See! I make sacrifices too! "But I will suffer in silence, O, how I suffer!"

*smiling!*

Do have a good day and be a blessing!

P.S. I'm not doing clothes today because I'm wearing yesterday's clothes again! (gasp!)
*still smiling and laughing!*

Thankful Thursday & A Week of Clothes

Let's start with being Thankful!

Today I am seeing fruit in my own life, not only because I am thankful, but I am learning to obey!
Obey God AND my husband!! I've been listening to Wives and Husbands and seeing the scripture that says:

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord."
"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body."
"Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." Ephesians 5:22-24

God said it, we must do it!! I want to walk in heavenly love (I Corinthians 13) toward my husband and to everyone!!

So, I am thankful to The Living Saviour Ministries for showing me to go to the scripture each and every moment, to live by the Word, to walk in faith & see God answer my prayers - each and every day!!

Ok, now to the nominal.

WednesdayThe cotton top is a wonderful garage sale find and wideleg jeans. I need to make a belt (knitted?) for these are too big for me now. I have a good 3 inches to pull at the sides of the legs. I don't have shorts (not that I'm against them) so that's why they are folded; they hit right below the knees.

Not much else, cooler around 80F degrees for the next week and slowly dropping into the high 70's for the weekend!

I made crackers from this recipe. I just added finely chopped onions & will be making these again & again! So very inexpensive & yummy!! (I didn't use rosemary)

Ummm...I need to go prepare the hamburgers & finish warming the leftover rice & lentils.

Blessings from God to you as you seek Him!!

3rd Day of Clothes

Wow, I hope I'm not leaving you wondering what comes next!! LOL! Here's what I wore for my anniversary. We didn't go anywhere or exchange gifts. This was the best anniversary because I changed my attitude & knew it would be a great day!! I still did the laundry, dishes, cooking, child raising (& blogging) that I do everyday, but having a happy heart made all the difference in the world!!

Tuesday

This a denim shirt with a fair isle knitted, 100% cotton skirt that my mom bought at a garage sale years ago!! My brothers called it the "N.ational Ge.og.raphic Skirt". (Not as bad as when I had a floral skirt in rusts and dark yellows & they called it my "Pizza Sauce Skirt"!!) Yup, I've had this skirt for approx. 15 years. The picture makes both peices look worn and faded, but they are VERY bright, must be the flash.
I'm starting to be tired of blogging every day!! It doesn't take long, but to fill in information is tedious!! Ok, need to distribute water & then head outside. It's much cooler today, with high around 85F for the next week!! We might actually be done with that hot weather.

Ciao for now!

Our Eighth Wedding Anniversary

"But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
Mark 10:5-9

Another Day, Another Outfit

Yesterday was 96F degrees with a heat index of 104F. You could swim as you walked outside, but the breeze was wonderful! After the storm passed through it was soooo chilly it felt great to breath the cool air!! There were a few tornados about 45 mins away, but no sirens or anything here. I now know that green sky color!! (it wasn't that dark here, but that green just lighter) The electricity blipped off for a min and there was a great rushing wind with lots of rain that blew across the yard.

Here's what I wore yesterday.

MONDAY

A cotton polo shirt from Old.Navy, the couture skirt is my original design (a rectangle with an elastic waist, hehe!), and very comfortable leather sandals.

I guess I wanted to make the point that you don't have to wear a dress only. And no one looks frumpy or overweight in skirts. I still have a good 25lbs to lose to get to my "skinny" weight, 15lbs to be my "mommy" weight. I am working on building lots of muscle since I didn't exercise this last pregnancy and have quite a bit more lightweight-space-filling-flub! Since May I've lost 10lbs and over 13". All I've done is the 15 min T-Tapp workout. I so very much would like to be like this homeschooling mom of 12!!

AND...I received this in the mail today!! Ok, now I'm busy with all this and more, need to finish the last of the laundry and go get lunch, Ciao for now!

A Week of Clothes

I won't say that I wear solely dresses and skirts, 'cause I don't. I would love to, but that's not me right now. I am gonna pretend you are coming for a visit and I'll show you what I "look" like. Sorry, no real pics of me. So, since this is something so very nonessential, I will share! (Even my husband says, "It's not a fashion show.") I did dress up like I used to yesterday & I felt better all day. These will be the previous day's clothes, so I can be honest. They will be wrinkled and stinky, but this is not smell-o-blog! LOL!!

SUNDAY

This is a 3/4 sleeved cotton blouse from Old.Navy, a worsted wool skirt in the Glen Plaid from e.bay, the black leather shoes were my gramma's - my sole (hehe) dress shoes, and my hair accessorized with my absolutely favorite silk scarf from my sis-in-law #1. I wore hose too, as any 1940's wife would do!

Ok, now on to my real life:

Monday - Friday: Laundry (Mon&Tues), Dishes (AM away & load/PM wash), Meals (much easier in summer, more cool meals, less oven baked), Vacuum/Cleaning, Schooling in Morning after breakfast, Outside Time/Kiddie Pool or Digging in Garden-the children for play, not often me!

Saturday: Last of any laundry, a big meal for leftovers on Sunday, Vacuum, Dishes...just about everything.

Sunday: Take care of family, rest, relax, refresh, read God's Word & KNIT!

Evenings: I finish what was put off or undone during the day, computer time, listening to Thurman Scrivner & knitting.

Here is my diaper table. Bummis Super Snap covers to the far left, then size 1 Kissaluvs, size 0 Kissaluvs, then European Trifold Toddler diapers. I use washcloths with water for wipes and if the babies get a rash, I use D.esitin Creamy. When I used A&D O.intment the diapers smelled fishy when clean!

Ok, now it's outside time/eating...need to go. Have a great week with many blessings from God!!

Singing Saturday

One beautiful day, just 81F degrees with a minimal 47% humidity!! Plenty hot in the sun to get in the kiddie pool with the children, but, alas, we don't have privacy of any type....well, maybe the van. We're gonna head outside again before bed. It'll be another late nite, the children took an hour nap at 4P.M!! But then again, I do stay up til 2 or 3 in the morning anyway. (Yes, I do sleep for about 5-6 interrupted hours) I'm not complaining...I get so much done in the day, AND so much I need to accomplish is done after children are in bed. I've found that I don't have the energy to complain, but totally lean on God, which makes my day calmer, more efficient, beautiful!!

"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." II Corinthians 12:10

I don't struggle with the flesh when the flesh is weak!! It makes it so much easier to live for Christ!

So, today, #2 has been singing, "The Trees of the Field"

You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace

The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you

There will be shouts of joy and all the trees of the field will clap,

Will clap their hands

Chorus

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands (clap, clap)

The trees of the field will clap their hands,

The trees of the field will clap their hands

As you go out with joy!

Taken from Isaiah 55:10

Here it's sung with guitar and recorder

Sorry I can't find a link for this next song (it's not what's out there)

Fear Not

Fear not: for I have redeemed thee,

I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee;

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:

When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned;

Neither shall the flame kindle a fire on thee

For I am the Lord thy God

It's a wonderful minor melody that repeats over and over! As well as blessing me over and over!! It's taken from Isaiah 43:1-3

Well, hubby is back from getting milk from the farm, so I guess it's outside time. Blessings ya'all and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Fire and Water