God keeps his promises

Psalm 105:1-8

1 Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name;



make known among the nations what he has done.


2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;


tell of all his wonderful acts.


3 Glory in his holy name;


let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

4 Look to the LORD and his strength;

seek his face always.

5 Remember the wonders he has done,

his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

6 you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,


his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.

7 He is the LORD our God;

his judgments are in all the earth.


8 He remembers his covenant forever,


the promise he made, for a thousand generations,

Isn't that a neat portion of scripture?! This past week I was reading in the book of Joshua and I came across this verse:

"Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass." Joshua 21: 45.  And then check out these words of Joshua: "Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed." Joshua 23:14

I knew that God keeps his promises but reading this testimony was so cool to me. God always, always, always does what He says He will do! He never ever fails. Is that true of anyone else? I don't think so.

 This is a reminder to me to trust. Sometimes that isn't easy- I wonder if things will really work out. But when I let God be in control their is absolutely no need to be concerned. I can always trust Him!

I am hoping to keep these verses in mind. I hope you do too!

What have you been learning from God's word? Do you have an example of God keeping His promises with you?

Eating squash raw {And how to "butcher" a big one!}

 My parents grew some big squash this past year! This was one of the specimens but it wasn't the largest. Even so it was pretty big.

 Here are some goofy girls' heads for reference. :-)
Dad doesn't actually know what this is. He knows what he ordered and what seeds he planted where these grew but the description and these squash (pumpkins?) didn't match up. So it was a mystery plant.

 They grew well for them but Mom and Dad didn't know what they were going to do with all of them. They are a rather lacking in taste for a cooked squash or to use in pumpkin pie and they had so much of them! What to do?....

Mom and Dad are not lacking in creativity with using food and so they decided to cut them up and try them raw and  plain. Lo and behold, they were good! Even my brother and I, who don't care for plain squash  (We gagged over the cooked stuff all of our growing up years) thought the squash sticks were pretty good.

When we were over at there house last week (we were there for a tea party which is why the girls are attired in such lovely clothes!) Mom thought maybe we should cut one up for me to take home. I went and got one from my Dad's shop ( a cool but not freezing place where they store lots of their garden produce). It was a bit heavy!

Then we got to work! I cut it in half and the girls helped me scoop out the seeds (We roasted them for a yummy snack).

 Then I cut it into chunks -I even got a blister from my efforts! I guess I am thin skinned. Mom then peeled each of the chunks. The girls cleaned the seeds.

Here is one side that Beatrice is holding.

 We then cut them up in little carrot stick sized chunks. They are good dipped in ranch dressing or sour cream dips.

  Now we are well supplied with raw fresh local veggies! My kids really like them and I am quite pleased!

Lately the project around here has been card making. Last week my Mom came over (along with my nieces and nephews that were staying at her house) and we had fun making some invitations for a baby shower that we are holding this coming Saturday. I printed out the inside but we decided to have fun decorating the outside- each one an original. We used various pictures (from an Ann Geddes Calendar and other places), paper scraps and stamps. Below is the finished project. They were simple but we thought rather fun.

Mara and my niece Margaret made envelopes to go with the cards and then later the kids and I had fun making a bunch of envelopes from old Calendars to hopefully supply us for a while. Do you have old calendars? Check out this post that tells 11 different ways to use them rather than throw them away.

 This week I decided to set aside quite a bit of time to make a bunch of cards in an effort to be ready for this new year. I am actually hoping to get them all addressed soon too (for the whole year!) so that I will just need to add a note when the Birthday/ Anniversary comes and then off they can go very easily.

 I had my friend Emily over on Sunday afternoon to make cards with me and then the kids have had fun joining me these last two days.

   I really have a lot of fun using up things that would otherwise be thrown away or recycled on my cards. All of the cards pictured have a card stock base (generally a half sheet of either white or cream) but everything else on the card (other than tape, glue or glitter) is stuff that has been recycled. Some of the things I save for my card making are:

• Junk mail- sometimes there are really pretty or colorful ones that add a lot to card making.
• Colorful envelopes that are sent to me.
• Old Cards
• Calendars
• Kid's paper's that they bring home from church, etc.
• Church bulletins

 I love the idea of saving money and saving something from being trashed all while I get to have fun creating and hopefully I will cheer somebody up with the card too!

What have you been making?

Life with Lord Byron {A Review}

Recently I had the fun of reading "Life with Lord Byron" by Peggy Nelson. Byron Nelson (Nicknamed "Lord Byron" by colleagues) was a famous golfer from way back in 1945. I guess he is still very well known in golfing circles and still holds several world records. He may have been the greatest golfer of all time.

 When I received the book as a gift from Kathy Carlton Willis Communications for purposes of reviewing I had never heard of Byron Nelson. I have very little interest in golf (or any pro sports for that matter) and I wasn't sure how interesting I would find the book but I had decided to give it a try as I do enjoy biographies.

  I was quite pleasantly surprised with the book! Byron Nelson may have been a great golfer but more than that he was a great christian! And that is what the book is really about. His wife Peggy (who he married after his first wife of many years died) tells of her time with him. What she tells of how he treated her and others- always thinking of others first and doing his best to letting Jesus shine through him is very inspiring.

  Byron and Peggy had interesting circumstances with Byron being around 30 years older than she. However in the book there are many things that show what a good marriage is really about. It was so encouraging to read about their relationship, how they celebrated their anniversary every month since they would never have enough time together to just do it every year, how they gently worked out their differences and how they honored and loved each other.

  The book is Peggy's story of life with Lord Byron and she tells much about him but there are also many notes from others sharing what Lord Byron meant to them, how he encouraged them or shared Christ with them and about how humble he was (even though he was a quite famous man).

  I really enjoyed this book and I think you will too if you should have a chance to read it!

 

New every morning...

"The Lord's loving kindness indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is your faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, says my soul,

Therefore I have hope in Him."

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him."
Lamentations 3:22-25

Isn't this a comforting verse? Never do we run out of God's loving kindness. Every single day He is again full of compassion and loving kindness. God is always faithful, He is good! We can hope in Him. Always.

What verses have been speaking to you lately?

Happy New Year to you!! {and what I am hoping to blog about this year}

  It seems a little hard for me to believe that 2010 is already over. I guess I am at the stage of my life when times flies very fast! I remember when days seemed to last forever when I was a child (and especially when I was waiting for something important!) but that time is no more. That's all right I will enjoy life however it comes!

  I am excited to be starting another year. God has blessed us so over abundantly it will be fun to see Him working yet again! I hope you have a blessed year too!

  I have been thinking about what I want to do on this blog this year, I thought I would share some of my thoughts with you.                      

On Sundays I plan on continuing to share some of the Bible verses that I have read and been touched by. I am loving learning from God's word and I hope to be able to share a bit of that with you.

I love to hear what you have been learning from God's word so please feel free to share that in the comments at any time!

I have started having more offers from companies and such to review items and do giveaways. I do enjoy getting to try out things for free (especially practical things that fit in with our lifestyle) and I think it is fun to be able to have giveaways as well.

 I have been thinking about setting aside Monday's as a special day for that on my blog. That doesn't mean I will have a giveaway or a review every Monday but I do want to try to keep them only on that day.

I have enjoyed being able to work with Tropical Traditions and we do have more giveaways lined up with them. I am also open to doing giveaways for others- let me know if you have a business and would like to have me do a giveaway and review for you. I plan on keeping the items reviewed or given away as stuff that goes along with being a Proverbs 31 woman.

I hope you will continue to join me on Tuesdays as I share projects that I have been working on.

I plan on focusing even more this year on making new things from old things (or what some people might call "Junk"). It has crossed my mind to host a carnival (with a linky) with the theme being turning trash to treasure- Is anybody interested in something like that?

A theme I have been wanting to write about for a while is Hospitality. I think it is important thing for Christians to do. I certainly still have a ton of room for improvement in that area but I think it would be fun to write about what I have learned or am trying. I have also been blessed to have been able to observe many people that have wonderfully opened their homes and I can share some of what I have seen.

I am not sure if I will do this as a once a week thing or maybe devote a whole week (or month) to it. We shall see... I would love your input.

My interest in herbs and especially for using them medicinally is only growing. I am looking forward to studying on that more and trying things out- so be prepared for my writing about it too! :-)

This winter we have surely been enjoying teas from the herbs we dried and others we have purchased. They can be so soothing as well as helping in other ways.

Come harvest season again, I plan to continue on with telling about how we use and simply put up the harvest that God blesses us with.

I love to eat yummy nutritious food that we have picked and it is fun to preserve it for the winter (and times like now I am always so grateful that I did!) but I don't like it taking an extreme amount of work. I tend to look for the simplest methods. I will try to share what I do with you and look forward to hearing any tips that you have!

I am enjoying more and more being able to find and eat local foods.  This is a continuing project with me and I will have fun writing about it from time to time.
Currently I am trying to make sure that we have at least one item in every meal that was grown/produced locally- preferably from our own yard. It has been a fun challenge for the winter.

Next year I hope you all will join me again as I host "A Handmade Christmas". I do really enjoy seeing your ideas and projects that you link up!


I also hope to write more on our homeschooling journey. It isn't always easy but I am so often in awe of how God helps everything to fit together in our learning. In so many areas we just love to learn together! I hope to share more about what is working for us and I will try to keep it real by sharing some of our challenges too.

One of my themes for this year is SIMPLICITY. I am striving for that in our lives and I hope to share some of the things that I am learning and what is working for us with you.

And as always I will share bits and pieces from our lives.  I like to be able to write about what is going on it our lives.

 I am looking forward to this year- I think it will be fun to blog in it. I do so enjoy hearing from you and I hope you will join me in my journey!

-The topics listed above are some of the things I have been thinking about blogging on- but I am sure it won't be limited to that. Ken and I have laughed over the idea of my having a blog focused on one topic- I am afraid that just isn't my style! :-)