My Journey for Joyfulness Part 2

And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music.
1 Samuel 18:6

And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.
1 Kings 1:40

Okay, now we know how the Lord feels about joyLESSness, and we are getting rid of the spirit of anger some of us may be hanging on to (it's an old habit that dies hard, but I am working on it, believe me, with the help of my Lord!).  When something leaves, it has to be replaced with SOMEthing.  Let's find out ways to fill in the spot all that anger was taking up, with JOY instead!

The above two verses were next in my study.  They are both talking about a celebration.  The first is when David defeated Goliath the Philistine, and the second is when Solomon was crowned king.  So, the things these two verses have in common, is that they both have to do with celebration, and they both talk about MUSIC.  I also see dancing and the use of tabrets (which look really fun, try googling sometime!  I may just make some of these for me and the kids.).

Do we need something huge to happen in order to celebrate?  No way!  Find little reasons to celebrate everyday.  If you need an idea, how about celebrating your salvation, the Gift our Father has given to each one of us who accepts it?  Turn on some worship or praise music and dance around the house THANKING God for all His blessings.  I have found, as someone trying to get into the habit of joyfulness, that unless you're doing something where it will be distracting to you (or the kiddos trying to concentrate on school), having worship and praise music on (even in the background) can help keep you in that thankful and joyful mindset.  That's because since you're singing to/about the Lord, your mind is always on Him.  That reminds me of a verse I read in Luke today:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 12:34

Our treasure is in heaven!  Our treasure is Jesus!  So let's turn our hearts AND minds over to Him.  How can we NOT have joy, knowing how much our Lord and Savior loves us?!

Let's turn on some music and dance and sing for joy!

A couple of good sermons

By S.M. Davis

Freedom from the Destruction of Anger
Freedom from the Spirit of Anger

What do these have to do with joy?  Once we free ourselves from the spirit and destruction of anger (for those of us that have a spirit of anger), it will be much easier for the spirit of joy to come into our lives.  I've had (and still have) a spirit of anger, and he is right...it is VERY deceptive.  I guarantee the enemy did NOT want me to hear these sermons, and he certainly doesn't want any of you to listen, either.  S.M. Davis is very good and there are quite a few of his sermons that I have enjoyed listening to.  Very convicting, and encouraging!  Enjoy!

My Journey for Joyfulness Part 1

Right now, I am working on a little bible study for joy.    I did a search in the KJV on the word joy, and came up with 187 verses.  God really holds joy in high esteem!  I thought I'd go through each verse (here and there...not all in one post!), and ponder it, and possibly memorize it.  I really need God's joy in my heart, and how to get it there, except to read what He has to say about it?

The first verse I came across basically tells you what happens when you don't serve the Lord in joy.

Because thou servedst not the LORD they God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.  Deuteronomy 28:47-48

Wow.  I think this just may be more proof that the Lord really holds joy in high esteem.  He obviously does NOT like joyLESSness.  I don't know about anyone else, but I sure don't want to serve my enemies...not in those conditions anyway!  And that yoke of iron, a burden, upon your neck.  Isn't that how it seems to be when we don't feel like we have any joy?  Everything is a drudgery.  It has no meaning.  We begin to ask ourselves, why are we even doing this?  We begin to seek out things that will make us feel better.  We start to feel like we are on our own in trying to make ourselves happy, and in a way, we are because we have turned our back on the Lord.  Instead of allowing HIM to take care of us, we have strayed in trying to make *ourselves* happy.  We somehow think that we are just fine on our own, we don't need any help!  Or do we?  And then when nothing seems to make us happy, we start blaming other things on stealing or draining our joy.  Guess what?  We have no one to blame but ourselves!  People say, This relationship is draining my joy, or, This thing or that thing has stolen my joy, or, even, The enemy has taken all my joy away.  Those things may have contributed, but ultimately it is US.  When something has stolen YOUR joy, YOU *let* it happen!  I am slooooooowly learning that this whole "fake-it-till-you-make-it" thing really works.  I think a lot of times joylessness is a habit, and a bad one at that.  I had fallen into the trap.  Once crabiness is the norm instead of the exception, it's *easier* to stay that way, even if it makes you feel horrible.  You're not going to wake up one day and that feeling will be gone...it has become a routine.  You need to work, yes I said WORK to get rid of that habit of joylessness.  In fact, it's probably going to make you feel *worse* for awhile, biting your tongue and putting a smile on your face when all you want to do is give a crabby response.  It's kinda like your mama used to say, If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!  I promise, if you stay consistent in "faking it" you will not be "faking it" for very long!  You will experience true joy!  And you will want so badly to make JOY the routine, that you will keep doing it. 

Get that yoke of iron off your neck.  Start living *intentionally* today, minute by minute if you have to, reminding yourself to keep that smile plastered on your face, even when it's not as comfortable as scowling.  Remember, your family will reflect back to you what they see on *your* face most of the time. Make an effort to look your spouse in the eye and smile when you are talking, smile at your kids when you're asking them to do something.  What's that they're doing?  I think they may be smiling right back at you! 

Stay tuned for more verses on joy in the weeks (maybe months?  *smile*) to come.  I pray the Lord will bless you through these words.

Our time in Mexico-ECC

Okay, so we weren’t actually in Mexico, but we definitely learned about it (and Central America)!  I just thought I’d share with you some of the adventures we had. 
Here’s the bible verse we memorized for the last week.  The top one was Vincent’s copy work, practicing his new handwriting skills.  The bottom one was the next day’s dictation of the verse.

Here’s our flag wall, where we will hang up all the flags of the countries we learn…Vincent is coloring them and writing facts on the back about the symbolism in the flags.  So far, we have the USA and Mexico.

Here are some of the art projects we did…we made suns out of air-drying modeling clay (we have yet to paint them) and tissue paper flowers.  These were so fun!


And here are some of my favorite notebook pages Vincent made for science…we had been learning about deserts.

Okay, I’m not really sure if a girl would have drawn a tarantula eating a bug!  *giggle*

The next one is my favorite…
And this one is so cute.  It says "Many desert people now travel by car but still keep camels."  That’s a camel in the back of a truck. 

We finished reading our first missionary biography of the year, too.  It was a very good read, and we are looking forward to the rest of them!

And what’s Isaac usually doing during school?

Oh, and in other news, I’ve officially started my fall baking. 

Wordless Wednesday: Smile!

Mexican recipes

I thought I’d post the recipes we have tried from Mexico that we liked…well, actually, we have liked all of them so far!
The first thing we had this week was Mexican Chicken Corn Chowder (click link for recipe).  This was an instant hit with myself and hubby.  I don’t think it really knocked Vincent’s socks off, but he ate it anyways…he’s not really a big soup person.   And Andrew (aka Moose), in typical Andrew-fashion, took a few bites and said "All done!"  I’m not really sure how that kid is continuing to gain weight.
The same night we had the Corn Chowder, I was browsing some of my favorite blogs, and saw a recipe for enchiladas posted by Pioneer Woman.  They looked really yummy, and not too difficult, so I said, "We’re having those tomorrow!" and we did.  These were a huge hit with *everyone.*  That recipe is definitely going into the family cookbook!
I had some leftover meat mixture and sauce from the enchiladas, so I mixed those together with some shredded cheese.  For the next day’s meal, I cooked up some pinto beans and some rice.  We used the leftover enchilada meat and sauce mixture with those to make our own burritos.
Last night, I made Chicken Lime Soft Tacos, and those were another hit!  For desert, I made Mexican Wedding Cakes (which we make for Christmas every year, anyways, but it was fun!)  Leftovers are practically non-existent in the house this week, and those that are here, don’t stick around very long.  I am so pleased with how this has been going!
Here’s a recipe we had for breakfast yesterday (very yummy!).
Chilaquilles
6 small corn tortillas
1 small onion, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped (I left this out, though, not too many bell pepper fans here)
6 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper (I only used 1/2 tsp)
2 T vegetable oil
1.  Stack tortillas and use a pizza cutter to cut them into bite-sized pieces. 
2.  Break all the eggs into a bowl and add the salt and pepper.  Use a fork or whisk to beat the eggs until they are frothy.  Set aside.
3.  Put half the oil into a frying pan and put on stove on medium heat.  When oil is hot, add the onions and tortillas.  Cook and stir until both are slightly browned.  Add the remaining oil and raise the temp to med-high.  When the oil is hot, add the peppers.  Wait a minute and add the tomatoes.
4.  Stir and cook until the veggies are soft and the tortillas are light golden brown and crispy.  Add the egg mixture and continue stirring until the eggs are cooked.  Serve right away.
Tonight I plan on making Tortilla Soup (will post the recipe later if it turns out good).  Next week, I am planning on plain old beef tacos, beef carnitas, King Ranch Chicken Casserole, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, and Pelau (from Trinidad and Tobago).  I also want to make Mexican Hot Chocolate, Guacamole, Pico de Gallo, and Tres Leches Cake.
I love to cook, and this is so fun, learning new recipes!  This will be an interesting school year, for sure!

ECC is going great!

Sorry I haven’t updated in awhile!  Between school starting and adjusting schedules with that and Isaac, we’ve been too busy for me to mess with uploading photos.  LOL!  So this is kind of a catch-up post.
Weeks 1 and 2 we learned all about maps and globes.  Latitude and longitude.  Different kinds of maps, how to read maps, what kind of info maps can tell us.  We peeled an orange and tried to flatten the peel to see why flat maps are so distorted.  We also memorized the names and locations of the continents and oceans.  At the end of the 2nd week, we made this cake.

We also re-visited John 3:16, and colored some sheets that had it in different languages.  We learned that we were going to be studying and praying for different cultures and people groups around the world.  We would also learn about various missionaries and Christian heroes.  Vincent made a chain paper doll, and Andrew made a chain of hearts. 

We started weeks 3 and 4 off right here in the USA.  At the end of the 3rd week, this proud mama gave Vincent a blank map and and alphabetical list of the states, and he placed each one correctly without any help!  I was just beaming with that one, as I thought he would balk at it.  We learned an Omaha Indian song and sang the Eentsy Weentsy Spider.  We started reading the book of Matthew in the bible (Matthew is the focus this year…the Great Commission and all that).  We also started reading a missionary biography about Cameron Townsend and his missions in Mexico and Central America.  Very interesting reading.  We are learning about desserts for science, and we made Navajo sand paintings.  Here’s Vincent’s:

We just bought colored sand from Walmart and painted glue in a design, and sprinkled away!  Beautiful!
Oh, and I colored in on a map all the states we have been through/to.

Still have quite a few to get to, don’t we? 
We just finished week 5.  Weeks 5 and 6 are Mexico.  We are still in the dessert for science.  All week long, I have been having fun learning new Mexican recipes to try, and we have all been having fun eating them!  I will continue next week, although I will probably add some Carribean stuff, too.  We have been playing a game to help us learn all the countries in North America, as well as the major islands in the Carribean.  We’ve only played it twice and Vincent’s already bored because he already knows all the countries.    We’ve learned some Spanish expressions, and we’ve learned a little about the Mexican culture and people.  We’ve especially gleaned a lot by reading about Cameron Townsend.  We will learn more about Mexico next week, and then we will "fly" to Canada.  (Yes, Vincent even has a passport!)  Oh, yeah, Vincent’s been learning his cursive this year, too.

And here’s a couple silly shots.  Andrew’s learning to be goofy.  LOL!

And Isaac learned to smile!!!

Okay, that is a *really* cute last picture to leave y’all with!  This was a really long-winded post (whew!), and I’m really really going to try to keep current here!

Getting serious...

...about de-cluttering, that is.  Well, for the moving sale, anyway.  We are going to try to have our moving sale this weekend.  But, the weather in the forecast for Friday and Saturday does not look good, so we are praying for a change in weather.  In the last couple of days, I've got my kitchen, pantry, mudroom, foyer, dining room, and living room completely combed-through, de-cluttered, and re-organized.  I even managed to vacuum the floors tonight before the boys went to bed.  It's definitely feeling pretty nice in here.

Tomorrow, I will work in our upstairs rooms.  I should be able to get those done in one day, since there's not much to cover.  If hubby's off from work (still not sure, I haven't talked to him yet), he will tackle the basement (that's the biggest clutter spot right now.  Then, together we will do the front porch, where we have begun collecting things that we have packed and are moving with us, but we don't need right now.  God willing, this house is going to lose some serious weight this weekend.

In other news, the Moby wrap I mentioned buying a few posts down is working out *really* well...I REALLY love it, and Isaac is starting to as well.  Today was the first time he fell asleep in it, and it was nice just being able to do things without his fussing all afternoon.  Now, I cannot wait to take the boys to the park!  Who'd have thought I'd be saying that with 3 of them?!  Ah, they're good boys!

OH!  LOL!  And, the hormone thing is getting much better.  Thank you to all who have been praying for me and who have sent words of encouragement.  It means a lot, and has helped so much!

Up to our "ears" in corn

Ha ha it's a joke!  Sometimes I really crack myself up!  Okay, okay,  I know, I'm sorry...

Seriously, hubby came home last night with a HUGE box of corn-on-the-cob.  A buddy from his work grows it organically, and we got over 80 ears for $30!

Here's a bunch we blanched and are waiting to go in the freezer.


These we are going to leave in the husks and put them right in the freezer.



These are what's in the freezer now, and why everything else is waiting.  



The cobs we left the husks on can be thawed, soaked and then put right on the grill.  Yummy!

A new school year

We were supposed to start ECC next week, but we are having our moving sale at the end of that week, so starting the school year then wouldn't be the best.   We have everything we need already, so we decided to start today and then take next week off.  We were too excited to wait another 2 weeks!  LOL!  We are off to an awesome start so far and I cannot wait to see the fruit this year produces!

We started the morning off with an easy cereal breakfast.  Baby Isaac was asleep, and after breakfast, Nick had to run some errands, so he took Andrew with him so that Vincent and I could have a quiet first day.    We started off learning about a book we will use this year called "Window on the World."  We also started learning cursive today as well.  That went over lots better than I thought, and he's doing a good job already!  Then, we picked up where we left off in math and English.  Vincent filled out his passport application to be able to "travel" around the world this year, and we started learning about maps for Geography.  For science, we learned about what environments are, and Vincent started his science notebook.  For music, we started listening to Wee Sing Around the World.  Lastly, Vincent picked up where he left off for reading...he started his McGuffey's 5th Reader today.  And I think before bed, we will find a book in the book basket to read aloud. 

Andrew is also way more interested in school than he was last year.  He and Daddy came home before we were finished, and he climbed up into a chair at the table and wanted to be a part of everything.    Next year, I will get him the preschool package from My Father's World.  He already has the toddler toys and has absolutely loved them.