Hope I Got This Quote Right!!!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. Its not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

Do the Next Thing...

Okay, in an email I got this morning, there was a poem I really liked, so I'm sharing it!


Do The Next Thing

"At an old English parsonage down by the sea,
there came in the twilight a message to me.
Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven
that, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven.
And all through the hours the quiet words ring,
like a low inspiration, 'Do the next thing.'

Many a questioning, many a fear,
many a doubt hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from heaven,
time, opportunity, guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrow, child of the King,
trust that with Jesus, do the next thing.

Do it immediately, do it with prayer,
do it reliantly, casting all care.
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,
who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing,
leave all resultings, do the next thing.

Looking to Jesus, ever serener,
working or suffering be thy demeanor,
in His dear presence, the rest of His calm,
the light of His countenance, be thy psalm.
Do the next thing."


Second, I saw a story on the news this morning that just really upset me....This little mailman in Apex ,NC was stressed out and started burying people's junk mail in his back yard...now he's in trouble. I ask...WHY??? Shouldn't the man be getting a medal?? SHouldn't we be putting the people who SEND that junk mail in jail instead of the poor little overworked post man?? LOL! Wow> What a world we live in!! Have a great day!
J

We're back....

Okay, so we went to the church, we loved it. It went well. Please pray. We so want to serve Him fulltime. Rob's current work schedule is not cool. We hardly see him because he goes in at noon and isn't home until we're all asleep. Before work he is doing school or sleeping. So, basically, we don't see him. This is hard on the boys and on me! We had no indication from his current employer that it would be so many late hours. It's just bad. The church we visited yesterday was wonderful. Two couples took us to lunch and we had a blast. Roger followed the one man all over like he was his grandpa! Ha. They were all so nice and friendly and welcoming! Several people said, "We hope you come back!" or "Please consider our church!" We were like, hey, just call us---we'd be happy to come!!! It was cool. The area was beautiful...rolling hills, views of the mountains. So nice. The church is really old, too which of course Branche and I love...you know the History buffs we tend to be! Icing on the cake, right?

Well, onward...I was doing my BIble reading this a.m. and actually laughed out loud...no, scripture is not usually funny to me, but this verse hit me so funny...

"Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop,
Than in a house shared with a contious woman" Prov 21:9

THen I kept reading and found...

"Better to dwell in the wilderness,
Than with a contentious and angry woman." Prov 21:19

Funny...
Again in Proverbs 25:24 the first verse is repeated...

Do you think one or more of Solomon's myriad wives was contentious and angry??? Gee, if you had to share your husband with hundreds of other wives...wouldn't you be???

Let this be a lesson......if you're a wife, don't be contentious!!!
If you're a husband...stick to one wife!!!!


Ya'll have a good day and keep on prayin'!!!

J

Prayers please!!!

Hi all! Just found out at 10pm this evening that Rob will be preaching Sunday at a prospective church. It is in an area we would love to be in!! Please pray for God's will and help in this! We're getting weary of the hoping, the traveling, the crazy scheduals, keeping up with who is who and where they are. It's so hard. Hard is fine, we are just so ready to move on with our ministry!!! Rob will certainly appreciate any prayers for strength, wakefulness, clearness of thought...he's writing a huge paper for seminary and will have to come up with a fabulous sermon as well! That's all for tonight! J

Yee-haw!!

Well, we made it through the first two days of school!!! YEA! It's really unbelievable. This is our 3rd year homeschooling. Branche is now a 6th grader...eeek! You just don't know how thankful I am that I do not have to even contemplate what this year would hold if he was still in public school. I shudder to think!!! Truly!!! I am so thankful to God that he MADE me homeschool my boys!!! Our first two days have been fantastic in a couple ways and predictably hard in others. First, the hard way...Carter. Being "on the autistic spectrum" he's my special challenge. Mostly he's my special sweetie....in school however, he's not always so sweet! He's spent a LOT of time screaming, but hey....it's truly just the change. He does NOT deal with upheaval and scedual changes well. So, the first week or so will just be torture!!! I know it'll get better. Now, the good stuff!!! Branche was my real challenge the past two years, being that he did NOT want to be homeschooled, hated math, and language arts. THIS year, I made some changes....we discovered "Teaching Textbooks" math program...done on the computer, he LOVES it!!! I don't even have to grade his math...it's on the computer, so it's automatic!!! yahoo! Also, I switched the language arts program to "The Latin Road to English Grammar". Yahoo! He hasn't even gotten mad or yelled about it or asked to skip it! WoohOO! ALSO!!! He loves the new art program I got him, it came with a cool backpack full of supplies...he's in LOVE! ALSO, I love Sonlight...he's so excited about the new books we get to read this year. We're studying the Eastsern Hemisphere and the 10/40 window. Really cool, considering this is the part of the world about which I know the least! Also there's this notebook thingy they invented called "THe Eastern Hemisphere Explorer" . It's directed research that he does primarily with the World Book encyclopedia CDs. WHich by the way, I HIGHLY recommend!!He absolutely loves it. I thought he was gonna complain endlessly about it because every week you pick a special project to work on as well as your normal research stuff....so it seems like "extra" work. That's his favorite part so far!! LOL!!!! MAn, I'm lovin' it this year! I know, I know, we're two days into it. But trust me....it's not always this good even or especially the first week!!! I kid you not!!! My first week of homeschooling ever was a real ordeal. I had a headache every day by lunch. I cried evey afternoon. I just wanted to call the public school and say "Hey, I made a mistake...my religious beliefs definitely include giving you my kids for 12 or 13 yrs.!!!" Ha. Anyway, that's gone. That was for those who may be considering homeschooling or have started it and it hurts.....it'll get better. It would be hard for your first experience to be worse than mine!! HA! ANyway, I need to go to sleep...I'm worn out from all the excitement! HA! J

Noogie Bars

Here's a good recipe from a friend of mine. They're like homemade granola bars, add stuff like you want to, like peanut butter, or chocolate chips or nuts or raisins, whatever your family likes. They're really good, it makes a bunch and they're very easy to make, good for breakfast or a snack and somewhat better for you than regular cookies, but my kids don't even know the difference! Oh....the name (noogie bars) comes from a child's inability to say "granola" ha. Here goes:

1 stick butter
2 eggs
2 c brown sugar

cream above together (easiest in a stand mixer) until creamy
Add:
3 c uncooked, regular oatmeal
3c bisquick or other baking mix, (I use Jiffy because it all natural and cheaper)

plus anything else you want

spread in a greased,shallow, big, baking pan....the one I use has like a 1" edge....like a cookie pan thingy? really big. and bake at 400 degrees F, for about 20 minutes. I'm eating some now that I made and added molasses, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves...takes like Christmas! We made peanut butter ones last week...YUMMY!!

At Long Last.....

, First, for any of you who may still check occasionally to see if I actually posted...thanks! To those of you who don't....well, you won't see this...so too bad!!! LOL! We have had so much happening, I just couldn't seem to sit down long enough in front of the computer to do this. I have been on the computer, just not for this! I have been entering volumes of information into homeschool tracking software. Planning our school year, that sort of stuff. I love homeschooltracker.com by the way. Awesome support if there's ever a problem...way more capability than I could ever dream of using or need....great stuff, anyway. There's my ad for the night! I did just finish a great book that I highly recommend. It's called "The Shack". Have some tissues handy, you'll need them at some point, but man, what a testimony of a man's relationship with God. What a perspective altering, heart-rending, life changing book. Really cool. Read it. ALso, I've been reading Branche's readers for the year. Since we use Sonlight Curriculum, the reading is novels, the History is novels, real books, not excerpts, not pieces and parts. I love it, he loves it, but....in order to discuss it with him, I need to read the books too! It's cool. Even if you don't want to use Sonlight, you should get the catalog and you can pick (very easily) great books for any age, whether you want to read to your child or have your child read to themselves....they have picked the best (by far) of literature available. Use this stuff for free reading or to add to whatever you use. The books are guaranteed to generate deep thought, great discussions and lots of introspection. Many are even out of print and only available through Sonlight. I am so looking forward to starting Branche's school. He's going to be studying the Eastern Hemisphere. We'll be concentrating on the unevangelized people groups and nations. This is an area I know little or nothing about. I can't wait. Poor public school kids missing out!!! : 0 D Carter will be starting first grade and Roger will be officially starting kindergarten!!! I can hardly beleive it!!! My BABY!!!! Kindergarten!!!!! I need another!!! Ha!
Besides getting ready for their school, I'll be starting seminary in two weeks. EEEEKKK!!!! I'm a little afraid! It's kinda intimidating, you know?? Pray for me!
We've been doing major home improvement for the past month. We painted Branche's room, he picked a dark teal. The little boys picked PURPLE!!! EEEK! We put new flooring down in the both of their bedrooms and the kitchen. It's that laminate that looks like wood....you know, it snaps together? Well, it looks awesome. I love it. Now we need a single bed mattress-boxspring set for B, but who knew that new ones cost so much????? Unbeleiveable!!! AND, the thrift stores have NONE!!! Ugh. Oh well, one'll show up somewhere sometime!
I wish my camera wasn't broken so I could take pictures...the puppies are big...like 30 lbs. each now. They've been fixed....and after 7 yrs, the town of BOykins finally figured out I have a dog...so I have to go buy licenses for them all...ugh. We've had at least one dog here constantly for 7 yrs.....how could I not know I need this?? It's apparantly not a new law!!! LOL!!!! Man, am I clueless or what???
News flash....I got caught up on laundry...then everyone changed clothes! Ha!
One puppy thinks he's a hounddog, at least he barks..yells...like one. That's a little annoying.
Rob has two churches waiting for him to preach....now if he could just get a Sunday off! ugh!!

WEll, I'm out of time, my printer won't recognize that there is paper in it,....gee today is really starting great!!! LOL!
Pray hard!
Julie


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