Sunday, August 31, 2008

Next Home Made Project

I just found a how to at Bethany's blog (http://bethany.preciousinfants.com/) for making Mozzerella cheese. I just HAVE to try it. My girls love yogurt and cheese. I've found it's much cheaper to make yogurt at home, so I'm hoping it will be worth it to make the cheese too! I'm willing to give it a go!!!

I'll post the results when I get around to actually making it.
Well... I didn't head back to bed as I anticipated. I wanted to spend time with my family. And I also made home made butter! It was yummy and suprisingly easy to make. When I do get a new camera I'll post pictures and a "how to" to show you how simple it was.

For fighting exaustion and staying up to be with my kiddoes I was rewarded with a wonderful obeservation from my daughter. I was sitting at the computer when my Jordan walks up and asks me what "scraggly" meant. I told her I thought scraggly meant kind of old and worn out. When I asked her why, she just said she was wondering. Then she stops, takes a good look at me, and said "Mom, you're looking kinda scraggly." From the mouth of babes.... :P

And now I'm working on revamping my home management binder. I had made it a LONG time ago.. but got away from using it consistently and it became a catch all for misc paper stuff. So now I am decluttering my binder and making new tabs for new catagories and reorganizing my stuff inside. I'm going to start usiing it again to help keep my days organized starting this week.

I also need to start sorting through and organizing the files we transferred from the old computer to this new computer. Then go back through the old one and make sure we have EVERYTHING we need off of it before we wipe it clean of all of our info. I think Jerimiah plans on keeping the old tower and installing his Linux software on that one and conecting it via network to this one so both towers can use the same screen and stuff. But who knows...

And on top of that I get to sort through 5 boxes of clothes a lady from church gave us for the girls. It was time for new clothes.. but 5 BOXES WORTH?? God does provide more than enough and I'm sure I'll be passing some of this bounty onto some one else. I love our church. Moms are constanly passing clothes around that their kids have out grown.

Well... it's time to get the family up to head back to church.

Have a blessed day all!
Father forgive me... for I'm skipping church this morning!!! GASP!!!

Well... not really.

I didn't get home until 3:00am this morning from work and grocery shopping. Needless to say I can barely keep my eyes open. So I stayed home to rest.

But I'm getting to watch my church live! I'm so blessed to be apart of a church that I can still take part in church even if I'm at home in pj's and nursing a cup of coffee. (Now I'm not saying this should be the norm, but on the rare days it happens live streaming services are a blessing.)

I'm even able to put lunch in the crock pot for my family. It's just going to be a simple lunch of lemon pepper chicken, salad,and a fruit and veggie tray with home made ranch dressing. But it will be a warm meal waiting for my family after church.

Meanwhile... as soon as service is over I'm heading back to bed.

Have a blessed one all!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Well... I'll try to update from this neck of the woods.

Today was a pretty good day. I woke up late. Again. I have on my daily "schedule/routine" to wake up at 5:45 and wake the girls by 7:00 so we can start on breakfast, schoolwork, and house work. But... it is so hard. This morning my alarm went off, and I brought Jada to bed with me to feed her and fell right back to sleep. I woke up to the sound of the girls giggling and playing on the new computer. Anyway... I want to be up and ready for the day before the girls wake up. So. I'm gong to have to be more disciplined in my wake up time... or I'm going to have to order the girls to not wake up until 9:00!

So I skipped house work. I fixed breakfast and did the dishes. That's about it. Then we sat down and Jordan started her copywork/handwriting and math.

I still really don't know what to do yet "school wise" with Joelle so mostly I'll have her sit and color or do tracing sheets. Anyway... while Jordan was doing her copy work I was on the computer getting acquainted with it, and I started hearing Joelle counting. I didn't know what she was counting because my back was to her (bad mommy) so I turned to see what she was doing.... she had gotten a Winnie The Pooh Learning Fun book and was saying the numbers, saying what the items were, and then counting them. Like "Seven... baskets... 1...2...3...4...5...6...7....." I was really stunned. It amazes me how much she knows and I really don't do anything with her. So I sat down with her and finished counting things with her.

Then we went to the Alphabet section and started saying the names and I tried to get her to say the sounds. She knows most of the phonetics of the letters.... but she has trouble discerning the "C" and "T" and "D"and "G".... She is constantly saying "tuh" for "C" and "Duh" for "G". I don't know if this is a valid speach/hearing issue, or something that she can grow out of. She did have a few times when she did say "cuh" for "C". But she still said "Tat" when I asked her to say "Cat" I'm thinking it's too early to really start worrying about it now. If she doesn't grow out of it in about 6 months then maybe I need to take her to a specialist.

About 11:00 my neighbor called and said she was going to the store and wanted to know if I wanted to go along. I jumped at the chance. I've been w/o a car all week. Jerimiah has our second car on jack stands and is in the process of fixing the brakes. We had some food, but supplies were running low and I just wanted to go get enough to have a nice dinner.

I had Jordan leave everything right where it was on the table, intending to get back to it later. I threw a light diaper bag together and woke Jada up from her nap to dress her. She was acting a little fussy, but I thought it was because I woke her up early. I took her out to my neighbor's car and strapped in her car seat. As I was buckling her into the seat she threw up.

I'm guessing it was the oatmeal I gave her at break fast, because she threw up last time I gave her oatmeal. She didn't have a fever or anything... so I'm thinking oatmeal for Jada is a bad idea. She seemed fine after that so we went ahead to the store.

At the store I found some nice deals. We went to Homeland... there the prices are usually higher than most of the other stores. But you can find some great deals if you look hard enough.

Some times they reduce prices on their meat quite a bit when they have to sell it quick. A few weeks ago I was there and found boneless, skinless chicken thighs for .49 cents a pound. It was going to expire the next day. I bought every package that was reduced, brough them home, divided them up into quart size baggies 4-5 a baggie, and put the quart baggies inside a gallon freezer bag. 3-5 thighs provided good Zone diet protien block portion for one meal for my whole family. And I had enough to freeze to last me at least 2 months if we ate thighs once or twice a week for dinner.
Today I found a brisket that had been mis marked for $1.89 a lb. All others were $2.99-$3.99 a lb depending on the size of the packaging. I love finding good bargains. With our tightening budget, us trying to get out of debt and me reduce my work hours... every little bargain helps!

Did I tell you all that we got a new computer??? God blessed us immensely! We had recently pricing getting a new computer, or buying parts to upgrade our old computer. Even if we bought parts a few at a time to upgrade it would of been hard to work it into our budget. So we've been doing the best we could with what we had and just worked around it when the computer was being tempermental. Some times computer work or printing things out for school had to wait until we could make it to the library.

But God is SO GOOD and HE KNOWS WHAT WE NEED AND PROVIDES!

Jordan took part in the library's summer reading program. When she completed it she was eligible to be entered into a drawing. We really didn't know what the drawing was for.... Jerimiah was making a quick trip to the library with the girls one Saturday while I was at work and he almost didn't bother with having Jordan fill out her form and entering it. But the girls were being extra good that day and Jada wasn't fussy yet so he took the extra time for Jordan to do it. A few weeks later I missed a call from the library and the lady left a voice mail saying Jordan won the Grand Prize and it was a NEW COMPUTER! We were so suprised... but thankful to because God again showed his awesomeness!

We went and picked it up last night, and spend most of the day playing on "Jordan's computer". It's so nice!

During the girls quite time I listened to a pod cast of the "MomtoMomradioshow". This episode was about finding your philosophy of education. it was a real eye opener for me. Cindy Rushton talked a lot about not starting your home school journey looking for curriculum or looking to methods. But instead we should start our home school journey as moms by sitting at the feet of Jesus. By sitting at the feet of Jesus we can get to know Him more intimately and then be able to ask Him what steps to take to teach our children and be able to hear His voice and feel His guidance. I have been so guilty up to this point seeking advice from others about what curriculum works for them, or what they think I should do about certain situations in teaching Jordan. And I have failed to stop, and seek God and His ways first and let Him lead me to the proper resources and methods to educate Jordan. Yes.. there is safety in a multitude of councel. But if that councel does not include God first and foremost it is all folly.

Well.........I guess I better get off of this computer. I just got home from work. It's time for me to head to bed and get some rest so I can enjoy my family tomorrow.

Be Blessed all!

Monday, August 25, 2008

No sick days for mommy...

There's one thing you find out quickly once your a mom...

No paid sick days come with this posistion. No matter how new to the posistion you are or how much seniority you have, this benifit is the same straight across the board.

This past week, we've had a small intestinal bug circulate through our household. Nothing major with a high fever or any debilitations. Just a nasty bug that makes your insides feel like they are being balled up inside a fist and twisted. We've been standing on the Word of God at the begining of it that we all are in Devine Health and this thing is tresspassing and has to go. Even though we still had some symptoms it could be worse.

Yesterday I came home from church and fell asleep on the couch while nursing Jada. I was in such a deep sleep I didn't feel hubby pick her up. Nor did I hear him and the girls leave four hours later to head back to church. I was out of it that long.

I think I got the worst of it today. I woke up with nausea and a to do list a mile long of things that have to be done. Schooling got put off until this afternoon in hopes it will get better during naptime. I really don't think it wise to try to teach the girls in an already irrateable state. IF I don't feel better by then, we'll just have reading time and the girls can draw while I read out loud.

My main focus today was laundry, laundry, and laundry (it got a little backed up this weekend). Right now I have 2 loads on the line, 2 loads waiting to be put out on the line, and 4 loads on my bed waiting to be folded. I can sit on the floor and fold when Jordan is at soccer.

Being a mom, it's important for me to take extra measures to take care of myself. It's important that I strengthen my faith regarding health and healing before I get sick. And it's good to have a reminder of scripture throught the house when I start to feel sick. I've been listening to Pastor Bill's God's Promise to Heal CD (You can download a copy for $5.00 at http://gutschurch.com/Store/tabid/543/Default.aspx). And I have scriptures on note cards from when I did a study on healing. They are easy to pull out and tape different places as a reminder of what to think and meditate on.


It's also important that I eat healthy and excersize to keep my body fit to lessen the chances of getting sick. This is something I need to make a priority. I am fairly clean with my eating, but excersize is lacking in my day to day life. But... I'm working on getting homeschooling more streamlined so I can intergrate CrossFit back into my life.

But... I'm extremely fortunate. It's just a little bug. It will pass quickly. And tomorrow will start fresh and new... with an even longer to do list from today... ;)

Be Blessed!

Monday, August 11, 2008

First day of homeschool and We have a tooth!!!

Today was our first official day of home school. And it was rough. I woke up late. So it totally threw my schedule off. I grabbed a quick shower and got the girls up. While they did their chores I fixed some oatmeal. They love oatmeal, especially with some milk, honey, and cinnamon.
After breakfast we cleaned up the house really quick. Nothing thorough, just a quick pick up. Then we had bible story time. Joelle colored a picture while I read outloud. I then asked both girls some questions, and they could answer them all. After I read a bit I had Jordan read a chapter outloud and then draw a picture of something God created. Of course, she drew a horse. God was in the piture as well. He had curly red hair. I'm thinking that's not what God looks like, but I wonder if he got a chuckle from it?

After bible, I covered Math with Jordan. I am using an online curriculum at the Center for Innovation in Mathematics teaching . Either this one is not a fit for us, or I'm starting at too high of a level for her, or I'm not doing enough prep reading to teach it.
I couldn't get some of the lessons to explain them, and Jordan couldn't figure out once I did explain. Jordan was taught last year in PS to use her fingers to count up or down to add or subtract. She has no addition or math facts memorized. So it takes her several minutes to do a simple math problem.
I'm not ready to shelve this curriculum yet. But I do want to utilize more hands on manipulatives for a bit, and have her figure up a few somes and then commit the rest to memory. I'll take these lessons slower and give it another week or two before I make a final decision to either go down another level or find a new curriculum.
After that we had lunch and Spelling. Jordan was pretty mentally fatigued from the math so I had the girls go down for a nap.
I feel like we were at the table all morning. This is not what I want, and what I wanted to avoid in keeping her home. She's not designed to sit at a desk all day and needs more activity. Today was pretty rainy anyway so it's not like we could go outside, but still sitting at a tale for a majority of the day is not fun.

This afternoon I fed Jada and played with her for a while. She has been putting everything in her mouth for the past few months. She had a teething ring but it wasn't satisfying her. So I let her use my finger for a teether. She had a few good chomps in my finger, then I started to feel something poke me. She finally had a tooth cut through! WooHoo!!
The best part of it, she hasn't been overly fussy today, so I'm really really hoping this means she's going to be an easy teether for the rest of her pearly whites too!

Friday, August 8, 2008

I am Your's...

A lady on a message board posted a link to this today. I just had to embed it here to share with all my family and friends. This is awesome and has such a powerful message. Be sure to scroll down and stop the music on my playlist before starting the video.

Enjoy.



And still more...



Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 10th anniversary! It is hard to believe that we have been married for a decade. I still vividly remember walking down the isle to become Jerimiah's young bride. We have both gone through so much together, and accomplished more than we know. Truely, if it wasn't for the grace of God, I don't think either one of us would still be here. But we are here, we made it this far, and we are still going strong. My love for Jerimiah is stronger than ever before. I am so proud to be his not so young wife forever more!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

WAKE UP CHURCH!!!

Last night I was at work, and I on a small break I perused through the local newspaper. I report caught my eye that horrified me, sickened me, and angered me. Reading it shook me to the very core of my being.

Last week a 2 month old infant was mauled to death by an older puppy. The infant was left unattended, strapped in a swing, for several hours. While the puppy bit and mauled the infant, the mother and possibly the grandmother slept on the other end of the house. They were allegedly in a drug induced sleep, or there was too much distance and too many walls between either of them and the infant. Either way, they did not hear the infant's screams and cries for help or come to it's aid. The infant died helpless and alone.

I read this and I was stunned. Why? Why did this happen?
I was so sickened I had to run to the manager's office to hide and pull myself together. I screamed out to God.

Time and time again I read, see, and hear of God's precious children being tossed away as trash. Mothers are given one of more of the most precious blessings only to mistreat, neglect, and reject them. These children are unwanted, unloved, and unheard when they cry out for love and help.

In my anger and hurt I questioned God.
How could God let this happen? Didn't God hear? Where was God when this baby cried out for help? Was He really for real? If He was, did he really care? Or was Jesus loves the little children only a lie?

After my rant I calmed down and pulled myself together. After all I still had 4 hours of a shift to manage. I went back out into the front of house and watched over the store, feigning that everything was ok. But on the inside I was still in turmoil. And praying. Still asking God for an answer.

After the store closed, and everyone was gone, I was in the quiet of the office. Trying to just get my paperwork finished so I could go home. But I couldn't focus enough. So I just sat there, waiting, hoping to hear from God through the turmoil in my soul.

Somehow, in the quiet of the office, God started "speaking" to me. And showing me that Yes... He was there.

He showed me that the grief I feel each time I hear of these things, it's God grieving too.
The anger I feel each time is the Righteous Anger He feels too.

He was there when the tiny babe cried out for help. He was there, but helpless to do anything. All He could do was stand and wait with His Angels to receive the little babe's spirit and take it to be with Him forever.

He was there in His spirit. But His arms, His hands, His feet, His mouth wasn't. His body was not there to help.

You see... we are the body of Christ. Jesus is the head of the body. We are His arms, His hands, His feet, His mouth. Nothing God does on this earth can be done unless it is through us. Nothing can be done unless it is through our mouths that His Word is spoken. Nothing can be done unless it is through our arms that reach out with His compassion. Nothing can be done unless it is though our hands that work and our work is caused to prosper. Nothing can be done unless it is through our feet that goes to possess every place we tred.

And what is the body doing? It is sleeping.

We are playing fashion show on Sunday mornings. We are talking "Christianesse" with our "Praise God's" and "Hallelujahs" to make ourselves more inclusive.
We are fellowshiping with each other, and not reaching out the undesirable who need our fellowship.
We have sat back and only focused on taking care of ourselves.
We have allowed a broken worldly system to take on the responsibility of the orphaned, the poor, the widowed.
We have allowed a broken worldly system to take on the responsibility of teaching mothers how to halfway care for their children instead of truely love an nurture them.
We have tied our own hands behind our backs and allowed the worldly system to take away more of our freedoms. We have allowed the world to forget our Godly heritage and purpose. We have allowed the world to forget that we are descended from God.

We have lost our saltiness, and hidden our light and made it harder to find in this ever darkening world.

When are we going to wake up? When is the righteous anger of God going to be awakened in us? When are we going to allow the compassion of God to over rule our apathy and self centeredness?

WAKE UP CHURCH!

Mother's murder their unborn each day, while those hoping for children loose hope. WAKE UP CHURCH!

Terrorists desecrate our God given soil and we allow them to be offended becuase a tired soldier kicks the Quran. WAKE UP CHURCH!

Families go hungry, and some loose their homes only to live in cars or under a bridge, while we lift our eyes and pray that God would bless us so we could have more for ourselves. WAKE UP CHURCH!

More and more teens turn to each other and become more peer dependant to find worth and purpose while we hide ourselves from them because they are not part of our culture. WAKE UP CHURCH!

More and more drug lords push drugs every day. People take them to cover and hide their pain while we hide the One True King within ourselves because we don't want to be to pushy! WAKE UP CHURCH!

People, young and old, die without hope in hospitials, because we fail to go and lay hands on the sick and share the Word of God that is more powerful than the most terminal prognosis. WAKE UP CHURCH!

We are passionate about what happens inside an althletic arena while we are lethargic in a worship service. WAKE UP CHURCH!

WAKE UP! Feel the righteous anger of God inside you! Feel the compassion and mercy of God for the lost inside you!

Yes... I feel anger! I am angry! It was totally wrong that the young mother neglected her young baby, only for it to die alone. In my opinion it was murder to let that baby die like that. And yes. There will be justice. There has to be. If not full justice here on earth, there will be full justice when they die, unless they repent and turn to God.
But I also have compassion and mercy.
This young mother and her mother were deceived. They were blinded. They were hardened in their hearts. they turned to drugs as a false answer. And as a result they will never feel the joy of holding that baby close again, feeling it's soft skin caressing their own. They will never again get to look into eyes that love them and depend on them. Because of that I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry that they allowed themselves to be deceived. I feel sorry for them that they listened to the father of lies.

And we as a church have shamefully kept ourselves quiet and allowed the voice of the father of lies to grow stronger.

We are commanded to go into the highways and the hedges and compell them in. Those in the hedges are the undesirable that sit along the wayside of our busy lives. Compell them in.

I'm sure this young mother was among the undesirable. What would of happened if some member of the body of Christ had reached out to her in love and compelled her into eat at the banquet of Christ?
Would she of then made the choice to turn to drugs, which smothered the very drive of a mother and made her so out of it she couldn't even come to the aid of her dying infant?

WAKE UP CHURCH!
Quit being so self focused and centered that we only care that our needs and desires are met. Actually activate your faith and trust that God will meet every single one of you needs, and reach out to those who are more needy than you.

WAKE UP CHURCH!
Quit being so self focused and self centered as parents that we only care to survive raising our own children. Trust God for the wisdom to raise your own children. Fathers rise up and be leaders in your own homes and raise children of influence and authority. Mother's reach out to other young mothers and teach them to love their children as we are commanded to in Titus 2!

WAKE UP CHURCH! Use His word to shut out the voice of the father of lies. Allow His spirit within you to lead you, guide you, and instruct you. Use your hands to work to prosper the Kingdom of God. Use your feet and go and possess every place which your feet tread. Do not go with the spirit of fear. Go with the power, love and sound mind you have with the mind of Christ.

WAKE UP CHURCH! Burn with Righteous Anger towards the sin. Have compassion and mercy on the sinner.

Love the sinner. Reach out to the sinner. Hate the sin.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Jada is 5 months old!!!


My dear sweet Jada is 5 months old today. It seems so long ago since she was born, but in other ways it only feels like yesterday.

I took pictures of her today. But my camera met an unexpected end. I accidentally knocked it off the desk while uploading all the pictures and the lense is now jammed. I have the camera taken apart and will try to fix it. If I can't I'll take it into a repair shop and see if they can bring it back to life.

But until then here is a picture of her taken on Friday.
Jada Devine Childress.
When we first chose her name, I never really thought to research the meaning. So recently I was doing searches on all our girls names.
The most popular meaning of Jada is an elaborated form of Jade, which is a precious stone.
But searching on ttp://www.behindthename.com/ led me to a second meaning. Jada means "he knows" in Hebrew.
Devine is our elaboration of the English word divine meaning "divine, godlike". A search on http://cf.blueletterbible.org/ leads to the Vine's definition of divine, which states : "Divine" (from theos, "God"), is used of the power of God, 2Pe 1:3, and of His nature.
So in a round about way, she is our precious jewel. Full of the nature of God. And a constant reminder that "He Knows".
Her blue eyes are not staying blue. They are changing, and appear to either brown or hazel. She is not bald like her older sisters were, but she is growing darker hair. And she smiles all the time (until I try to take a picture). And she is really starting to talk and laugh. Last night all the way home Jordan and Joelle were giggling. Jada was giggling, squealing, and blowing rasberries right back at them. It was so funny!
She really is a blessing. A precious gift from God. And we all treasure each moment with her.


Update: My camera is officially dead. May it rest in peace.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Weekend update...

Friday was our errand day...

Hair cuts for the girls, visiting the library, stopping at Bibliomania for home school stuff, grocery shopping, etc.... all the fun stuff :).


Joelle got her first real hair cut. She was more interested in my watch (I let her wear it) than she was in the cutting. Her hair wasn't that long so it was more of a trim ;)
Jordan only wanted a trim, but the girl who cut her hair was nervous and made a snip too short so her trim became more of a cut ;) Jordan's missing her long hair, but her hair is growing fast now and will be longer before we know it.
They both look real cute with a page boy type of style. And it will grow out on both of them.

While at Bibliomania we shopped the 1/2 price table and found 2 movies for $5.00! The Black Stallion and Shriley Temple in Bright Eyes. Both are fun movies and the girls love them. Since Friday afternoon the girls have watched the Black Stallion at least 5 times. And we are watching it again. A cheap way to entertain the girls between chores and table time. Sure beats the cost of taking them to a matinee!

Friday night we got a rare treat. It was rare in that I wasn't scheduled for work for once on a Friday. While I was out running errands a friend of mine called and invited us over to use her pool while they were gone in the evening. She has a HUGE house with a pool that overlooks a valley. It was such a peaceful and relaxing place. All of us had fun. Even Jada kicked back in her floatie and motored around a bit with her kicking.













Joelle's become a little fish. Last year she would only get in the water if we held her and refused to let go. This time it took her a little while to warm up to the water and then she was all over the pool!













We all had fun and are very appreciative to my friend for the hospitality.
Saturday found us working all day.
Jerimiah went to run the Saturday morning CrossFit FTX at the park. None of the regulars showed up, but there were a few people there finishing their morning run that were curious about what was going on and sounded pretty interested. Hopefully they will be there next week.
I worked all day. We were busy from the second we opened the doors. And of course we were short staffed. So I ran the bar and had a section. I was a little overwhelmed. I feel bad that I wasn't able to take care of my guests the way I should of, but I did my best and am praying the staffing at work will get better.

Today was church day. Nothing gets accomplished at home on those days. Just lunch and a nap after morning service.