Daily Bible Reading Challenge

How is your Bible reading going? Are you trying to read through the Bible in a year? What is your method for getting into God's word? I would love to hear!

Here a some of my favorites from this past week:

What Caused me to Worship God more?
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed;" 2 Corinthians 9:8

God gives us sufficiency. He is the one that provides for us in abundance. That certainly causes me to worship him more.

What Touched Me?
"Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of afflictions their abundance of Joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us be the will of God. So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning so he would also complete in the you their gracious work as well." 2 Corinthians 8:1-6

To me, reading about the Macedonians and their sacrificial giving is very inspiring.

What prompted me to action?
 "Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:10 & 11

I want to work at sowing more bountifully. May I truly be a cheerful giver.

What interesting fact did I see?
" Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" 2 Corinthians 6:14

This is a wise way to live your life. Unfortunately it isn't always popular but that doesn't make it wrong. Obviously this applies to marriage but can also apply in other areas.

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day! A big thank-you to all of our veterans!

An Exciting Day

 Today was one of those normal, regular days except that there were a few unexpected surprises that made it rather exciting and very fun.

  Our first surprise was right away this morning when the Fed-ex guy brought a box. It was addressed to me and our homeschool. What could it be? I hadn't ordered anything. I opened it up and there was this big certificate that said Megan had won a Silver award for a picture she had submitted to a contest way back in the fall. There was also a necklace (she is wearing it in the picture above) and a nice set of oil pastels. How fun!

 Then this afternoon I was cleaning up and found a letter that had come a few days ago to Mara. I had thought it was junk mail and Ken had even written a note on the back of the envelope and then it had gotten placed on the counter while we were gone and busy over the weekend. I came close to just sticking it in the reclining when I happened to think about why Mara might be getting a letter from the National Right to Life. She had written an essay back in February for their essay contest. So I stuck it up on her bed for her to find and open when she got home from work.

  Just before supper my parents dropped in. They had been with my youngest sister and her husband (and cute baby boy) to check out a house not far from us (like 1/2 mile). And they like it! And they might get it! Yeah! How fun it would be to have them living close to us. We are praying that it will all work out if it is God's will. It is an old house (Mobile home) on 20 acres. The house would work for now and the land would be great!

  When Mara got home I asked her to open the letter and guess what? She had won first place in the Senior division. The letter had a $200 check in it. I am glad I didn't recycle it! That was unexpected and pretty exciting.

 This evening we took a fun bike ride over to the lake. Kitchi enjoyed coming along.

I thought you may enjoy reading Mara's essay. Here it is:

Right to Truth

       "Seventeen years ago, I was conceived.  I was perfect, one cell floating in a sea of amniotic fluid.  All my characteristics were written in my genes- my height (tall), eye color (brown), sex (female.)  I only needed time.  And time I received.  By eleven weeks, all my organs functioned.  My feet were perfectly shaped, all the little toes intact- yet I was only a few inches tall.  So I grew, and at nine months and a week, my mother held me in her arms.

      

      Another baby was conceived too, just about then.  She too was perfect, her every potential etched on strands of DNA.  She also grew and developed.  But then her life was sucked down a hose and ended. 

 She might have been a singer, a teacher, or a senator.  She might have been a sunbeam, brightening every life she touched.  We’ll never know, because her life disappeared forever, and with her went her contribution to the world.

     Why does our culture murder its children?  Some tout family planning, others discomfort.  Others say the babies would be neglected, that such a life is better left unlived.  The baby is not a person, they claim, only tissue to be discarded at will. 

      So we educate, showing new and ancient proofs that the baby is indeed fully human, and fully alive.  We elect congressmen who will pass laws restricting abortion.  When the world knows it’s murder, the horrors will cease.
     

       Or will they?  According to the article, “A New Ethic for Medicine and Society,” abortionists know that they are killing a human, yet they do it anyway.  Why shouldn’t they?  Most don’t believe in any higher power.  To them there is no truth.  Therefore a human’s value is only relative, not absolute.  The only reason they claim a baby is not human is because Americans, while starting to accept their “new” ethic, still hold to the Judeo-Christian knowledge of right and wrong. 

       This is not just about abortion.  If they accomplish their goal, if truth is proven false, then our whole world will be tipped into hell, and nothing will stop them.

       Fortunately, there is truth.   This truth was created by the Author of Life, God.   Without him, nothing makes sense.   With him, everything has meaning.   It might be possible to believe in truth without its author - I don’t know - but you’d have a hard time explaining it. 

      Remember that “new ethic” described a couple of paragraphs ago?  Well, that’s as ancient as Cain’s murder of his brother.   It’s inspired by the same person, too.  His name is Satan, and he’d like nothing better than for truth to be abolished. 
 

    So what can I do to build a pro-life generation?   I can show others that they need the God of the Bible, the author of truth, in their lives.  Only when everyone knows him will abortion, with a host of other problems, disappear.  And I can pray the translation of my Hebrew name:  “Come, Lord Jesus.”   We need you."

     

Daily Bible Reading Challenge

I have misplaced my little paper where I kept track of the verses that I read throughout the week and wanted to share with you. However I still have some things to share - I just think I am going to do it a little differently this time. I am not doing the questions today -  I just thought I would share some of what has been going on with us and how God's word just really encouraged me and gave me strength.

This past Friday morning we headed over to Duluth, MN for the State Republican Convention. It was Ken and I, 2 friends that were delegates too and our eldest daughter - Mara. My brother and sister-in-law also went over as my brother was a delegate and Mara went along to have fun exploring with my sister-in-law.

Anyway - we knew as we headed to the convention that we were going to try to encourage our party to recognize the issues that there are with our presumptive nominee. Recognize that he doesn't care about the Constitution or the party platform or the Bible or basically anything that we hold dear. There was a group of us that hoped we could get others in our state to see that and to not support Donald Trump here in MN or at the very least say that each person (even if they are in an elected position such as the chair of  a branch of the party) could choose for themselves whether they wanted to support the nominee or not. Both Ken and I had decided to run for National Alternate so that we would have a chance to talk and help to get that message out. Ken didn't really want to win but as I have agreed to go with a friend (who became a national alternate at the district level) to the national convention anyway I thought it would be more interesting to go as an alternate so I did think it would be nice to win.

  Public speaking isn't my favorite thing and so I admit I was feeling a little uptight over the upcoming events of the weekend knowing I would be speaking in front of over 1,000 people and knowing that we would be fighting for something that quite likely the majority did not agree with. As we traveled I read in my Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 was what I was reading that day.

 I read: "Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,"  (Verses 4 and 5). This was such a great reminder and a comfort to me. I didn't need to worry about what I/we could do. God is the one who is at work in me. He is the one that makes me adequate for the task set before me.

The first day of convention (State Central Committee Meeting and then the start of the state convention) did not go very well as far as our goal of getting people to understand that some of us have convictions that it would be wrong to support someone such as Trump for president and that we would still like to work in the party to support other candidates but be free to not support Trump. A resolution to that effect did not pass and meanwhile speaker after speaker pushed the idea of the need for Unity. Not unity around principles we care about but rather unity around a candidate who doesn't stand for any of the conservative principles that we care about. The situation was feeling pretty dark. To me it really felt like people were being blinded. That they were coming to the place that they no longer cared about what is right and good they only cared that we might somehow "win" (Is it really winning for conservatives if you elect someone that doesn't care about the Constitution and it's Bill of Rights and who doesn't agree with our platform?).

The next morning in reading 1 Corinthians chapter 4 I was encouraged by this:
"And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. or we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." verses 3-6

You might think - "Abbi, you are mixing up politics and spiritual matters". Yes I am. I feel they are quite entwined.  Politics is a result of the spiritual condition of the people in our country. When people are blinded spiritually and not following Christ's light then they are not going to make wise and godly decisions concerning the condition of our country either.

However, I do fully realize that the politics of this country are not eternal and so no matter what happens here we do not need to lose hope. I love these verses:

"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Saturday at the convention we had our opportunities to speak briefly. I just encouraged people to stand strong for what is right and leave the results to God. I won't go into details about what happened that day but overall the majority of the convention did not seem to have an interest in standing up for Godly principles, our Constitution or our platform. It was sad and a bit discouraging that people just didn't seem to care. At the same time there was a minority group that was wanting to stand up for those things and they did care. I was encouraged by them. Several of them came up to me and thanked me for speaking up. That has really encouraged me that I can't be afraid of speaking out for what is right and good. I may get ridiculed and people may get upset with me (this has already happened some) but when I am willing to speak up it encourages others to stand strong and do what is right too.

Sunday morning my reading led me to this passage:
"Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord - for we walk by faith, not by sight - we are of good courage, I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

That was the reminder I needed when feeling discouraged. Basically don't be discouraged - God wants us to be courageous and no matter where I am my whole goal should be to be pleasing to Him!

Another good reminder was in my reading that morning:
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20

What is really important in life (whether our country falls or not)? To be reconciled to God and walk with Him. My job as a Christian is to be His ambassador - to represent Him wherever I go. I pray that I may do that to the best of my ability!

I found God's word so comforting and just what I needed this week. How about you?



Update: Just so that it is perfectly clear - just because I do not support Trump does not mean that I in any way support Clinton or Sanders. The thing is - people don't assume that I will support them or try to talk me into supporting them. Nor is the Republican party (which I have been a part of) trying to nominate them. So I am standing strong against Trump but that doesn't mean that I am any less opposed to Clinton or Sanders. I just wanted to be perfectly clear on that. :-)

Daily Bible Reading Challenge

Well I am running later than planned on this post again this week - but oh well, better late than never. :-)

I am truly loving my time in God's word. Here are some of my favorite passages from last week:

What caused me to worship God more?

"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." I Corinthians 11:23-26

Every week when we have communion at church on Sunday morning I am reminded once again to worship God for His willingness to send His Son to Die for us and for Jesus willingness to go through all of that for us. 

What Scripture Touched Me?

"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10:13

This promise touches me every time. I am so thankful for God's faithfulness!

What prompts me to action?

"Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor." 1 Corinthians 10:24

This is not easy but certainly something for me to work on. I do try to think of others around me (my neighbors which is much broader than just where my house is located) but still I tend to be concerned with my own self first - most of the time I think. This is something I need to seek God's help in.

What interesting fact did I read about?

"But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:3

I thought this fact would be a good one to share as it is definitely in the Bible but is not really a popular fact just now. Whether things are popular or not however is not what proves they are true or not. God made a world with order. This is part of the order of things. Life goes much smoother when we follow God's order.

What have your read in God's word lately that spoke to you?

A Day of Old Memories and the Making of New Ones

 Today we (the family except for Ken and Mara as both needed to work) went down to Brainerd, MN. Our older 3 kids had entered an essay contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution and all of them won at the local level. (Last year Mara and Jonathan both won at the local level and Jonathan then won at the state level as well.) So since we had submitted the essays through the group in Brainerd (we don't have one in our town) they invited us to a luncheon and wanted the kids (but Mara couldn't come) to read their essays to the.

 Our drive down was a little over 2 hours but it was so beautiful with the blooming fruit trees which thank-fully did not get all frosted last night (we thought they quite possibly would). I had the kids practice reading their essays as we went.

   When we got their the sweet group of ladies had the boys read their essays and then presented them (there were 2 other kids there that had also won and they gave Mara's stuff to me) with a check, a certificate, a calendar and a bookmark. They also gave me a rose and our family two books. They also bought us lunch.

 It was a very fun luncheon. We talked about history, about our need to preserve the constitution and our country that we need to pray for and more. We are very grateful for their sweet service to our country and to us.

 Being in Brainerd brought back old memories for me. When I was a child my best friends - the family that was like Aunt, Uncle and Cousins to me (all or our real blood relatives lived far away and though I loved them I didn't know them real well) lived here in Brainerd. I decided I would see if I could find where they lived as I knew I was in the general area.

  Sure enough, I found it. Dale, the dad used to preach at the Christian Church/Church of Christ there and they lived in the parsonage. We spent many fun hours there.

   The kids really enjoyed seeing a part of my childhood and hearing stories about times there.

A big tree in the back yard had come down and some things have changed a little but mostly it is the same.

Out behind the church building is a little stream with a big culvert that goes under the road. I told the kids how we used to walk through that culvert with our legs spanning the little stream while we did it. Of course they wanted to try too.

When driving out of Brainerd we found a place to go and explore "Our" river (the Mississippi) a bit. It was fun to go walking by it.

 Pretty as always. There were a couple of cute islands in this area.

 On our home we were kind of in the meandering mood. As we were driving by Nisswa I saw a sign for a pioneer village. Aaron saw it quickly too and said it looked neat so we turned around and went back. We first noticed the train car and had to check it out.

 The museums (by the train and the pioneer village) were closed but it looked like we could still look around the grounds of the pioneer village. After all the gate was open and I saw another old man back there walking around. So we thought we would go walk around too.

  I said "Hi" to the old man and he wondered if we would like to see in the school-house. "Kid's like to see in the schoolhouse". We said "Sure". So he unlocked the door (this guy actually ran the place - he wasn't just taking a walk like I supposed) and had fun showing us around in there and pointing out different things. After going out I thanked him and then he said we would probably like to see the bank so he unlocked that door too and showed us all around in there too. It was so fun having our own personal tour guide who would tell us about whatever object we might happen to wonder about.

After the bank he took us into an old homestead house (all except one of the buildings were authentic and had been moved there. They were mostly neat old log cabins. The homestead had an old stone fireplace that he said they moved too. So cool! After the homestead he took us into what they called the livery but what simply had a lot of different things to see.

They had this logging kitchen set up in there.

There were a lot of trunks that came over with immigrants. This one had 1776 on it and he said it was authentic. That was pretty neat!

 We felt so grateful and delighted to have been given our own personal (Free!) tour from this elderly man (who told me a little about his childhood in the 30's!). What a blessing from God for him to have orchestrated that meeting for our enjoyment. He is so good to us.

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable day and quite frugal too. We did stop at a sporting goods store in one little town we went through and Jonathan bought a somewhat expensive fishing lure but hopefully it will work to help him catch a lot of fish in the future. We also bought icecream cones at a gas station (but we did figure out that when we bought them in a box we could get them for less than a dollar a piece) but otherwise we did spend any money for anything except gas.

Blessings

This is so encouraging. Something we need to remember.

Future Fruit

 Our countryside is dotted all over with blossoms just now. It is so fun seeing them and dreaming about all the berries to be picked in a few months. Here are some of the blossoms that we have been seeing....

Blueberry blossoms!

 Wild Strawberries!

 Juneberries!

Bush cherries from our garden.

I am looking forward to the berries!
Of course we can't count our chickens before they are hatched or our berries before they are ripe and there is the concern of frost killing all - which is possible as it has been predicted for Friday. But I still am hopeful.

 Are you enjoying fruit blossoms where you live?

Randomness

I have been having so many different things going through my brain lately - I have felt on overload at times. Since I find that it sometimes helps to get them out of my brain and on "paper" I decided that you that read my blog would get to experience some of the overflow of my brain just lately....

In no particular order....

Politics - what is happening in America?
 Though I have long been concerned with the spiritual state of our country, this year has really opened my eyes a little more. I have always been a conservative in politics which generally has meant being a Republican. I believe in protecting life (ALL life), that laws should be based on the moral compass that we find in the Bible, that we need to work to uphold the constitution and that we want freedom. I choose to be a slave to Jesus Christ but I want no other master.

 This campaign season we started with a lot of choices. We had some that looked pretty good to me - they had a moral compass based on the Bible and they wanted to uphold the constitution. However as of last Tuesday - none of those candidates are left (at least in the Republican or Democratic party). The candidates that are left in the race don't care about God or His word nor do they care about the constitution. And what is super sad to me as that is what our country choose. What has happened to our country?

 Needless to say there has been a time of mourning around here. Not despair because I fully believe that God appoint leaders and that His will can be done even when there are evil leaders. Also I think that our light can shine far better when we are surrounded by darkness. I do believe there is hope - but still I do mourn for what our country has lost.

  Ken is also facing decisions. He has been the chair of our county's Republican party for the last 7 years (I have also been very involved). However if they choose to support Trump in the election then we do not feel comfortable being involved. The decision on that will be made tonight. I appreciate your prayers.

Health
My mom has really been struggling with her health lately. She has eosynophil (which I do not really know how to spell) pneumonia which is a chronic pneumonia. One of her sisters also has this and it would seem quite likely that their mom had it too (she always basically struggled with lung issues but then died in her 50's from breast cancer) also pretty nearly all the rest of my mom's 7 other siblings have had lung issues as well. Their family just seems to have trouble breathing.

 This pneumonia is pretty rare and they don't know a lot about it and have not thought it to be genetic but to us it really looks like it is. So obviously for my siblings and cousins and I there is some concern.

 I have been praying a lot for my mom lately as she struggles to breathe and to be able to live life normally. She has come to the place were the regular doctors want her on medication all of the time ( stuff like prednisone which eats away at the bones - her sister did do this and last year she had a simple fall and broke both wrists, a knee and a shoulder and nearly died from it and though she made it through she has bones that have not healed yet) and so she is trying to figure out if there is any alternative options that will help. My Mom has long tried to live a very healthy lifestyle and be cautious with using medication but still has problems with this.

I meanwhile am also trying to figure out anything that I can do to strengthen my lungs while I am still healthy. If I should follow my Mom's path I would have less than 10 years left before they would pop up. Anyway - just something I have been thinking and praying about. If you have any suggestions for ways to help your lungs work better - I would love to hear!

Homeschool Co-op leadership
I have had fun leading a homeschool co-op over the past 6 years or so. It has been a fun challenge. This year there have been a lot more challenges and I have wondered if it was more than I wanted to deal with sometimes. We had grown a bit which I think added to the challenge but mostly it just has been that there has been some outspoken discontent which is especially hard when sometimes what people are discontented with has been exactly opposite of what somebody else expressed. At that point it seems impossible to keep everybody happy.

 Anyway - it has been a growing time for me. I am learning to listen better ( I hope) and certainly learning to pray more. I would appreciate your prayers as well.

Children Growing Up
Mostly I am super happy with my children growing up - it is the right and natural thing to happen. But I do have to adjust to change and learn how to let go a little. Mara's getting a job and preparing to go on an international mission trip has been neat and fun and challenging. We have had to learn how to do without having Mara at home many days (who does the sweeping now?!) as well as figure out just what she is ready for and what she is not (As she flies alone - do we choose a cheaper flight with layovers or one that costs more without? - so many decisions).

 I am sure many of you have faced that as well and have gotten through it just fine. I am super thankful to have teenagers that love the Lord and want to do what is right. I can't imagine how hard raising a teen would be if they were rebellious and making bad choices all the time.

What to eat?
This past year I put on some weight. My jeans had gotten tight and then when I weighed in at the chiropractor I was about 10-15 lbs more than normal. What was going on?
I think mostly my body is starting to change and perhaps my metabolism is working slower.  I have found that I am not usually as hungry as I used to be but unfortunately I still think eating is fun. Anyway - this is a problem that I want to address right away rather than waiting until it is a truly big problem.

I have started working to have more self-control in how much I eat. I also am reading a couple of books "Wheat Belly" and "Trim, Healthy Mama". I really don't care for the idea of going wheat/gluten free and I don't think I will be doing that but I think I can learn something from each of these books.

Did any of the rest of you deal with a bit of weight gain as you neared 40? Did your metabolism change on you?

Can those that study God's word have unity?
I think they can. This is something that I want to strive for. But it has been discouraging lately a little bit as a friend and I were studying a topic together (for months) and I believe we were both honestly seeking and we came to different conclusions. So far neither of us have really changed from what we originally believed. We are going at it again. I don't want to give up. I truly don't think that God's word is that complicated. We should be able to find unity in the truth.

Anyway....
That is a bit of what has been bouncing around in my brain. I would love your prayers and insight on any of these topics.

Daily Bible Reading Challenge

 God's word has what we need for life. It is so fun how it what you read in a day will often address the various issues you have been thinking about. Even if you don't see that in just random reading, you can study and find answers to questions you have. Here (along with some pictures from a canoe ride/walk this evening) are some verses that I have appreciate this past week:

What caused me to worship God more?
"Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power." 1 Corinthians 6:14

That God can raise the dead is simply wonderful and amazing and is totally worthy of our worship.

What touched me?

To humans belong the plans of the heart,
    but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.

All a person’s ways seem pure to them,
    but motives are weighed by the Lord.

 Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
    and he will establish your plans.

 The Lord works out everything to its proper end—
    even the wicked for a day of disaster.

 The Lord detests all the proud of heart.
    Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

 Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for;
    through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.

 Proverbs16:1-6

I read this on Wednesday, after the bad political news of Tuesday evening. This chapter gave me insight, it gave me good reminders and a firmer desire to always seek his leading.

What prompted me to action?
"He who give attention to the word will find good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord." Proverbs 16:20

Some simple priorities to follow - Study God's Word and trust in the Lord.

 What interesting fact did I find?
I Corinthians 8:1 "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies."

What a reminder to make sure that their is always love to go along with any knowledge that I may have.

What did you learn from God's word this past week?

Frugal Activities Lately

We are still working at living frugally around here. Here are a few things that we have done lately. Maybe it will inspire you to live more frugally as well. I would also love to hear the ways that you have lived frugally lately too.

- One of my favorite frugal activities lately was fixing up a watch for myself. The deal is, I like to wear a watch. I like to know what time it is and sometimes (like when teaching music lessons) I really need to be able to easily keep track of the time. My dining room clock recently stopped so that made my watch even more important - but.... It decided to quit.

I was preparing to find a time to go shopping soon but then I happened to look around and found this old watch face of mine (with a broken band) that was still working. Hooray - at least for the time being I could carry it in my pocket and keep track of time. But then I figured I could make a band for it too.

I decided to do something a little different and I used the stretchy thread (that looks like fishing line) and threaded beads on it to make a band.

I have always been rather in love with the color blue and this watch just makes me kind of happy. I am fully enjoying it. I also love that I now have a "new" watch but I spent absolutely nothing for it.

 ~Another recent frugal activity was making underwear from old t-shirts and on 3 of them I used old underwear elastic too so they are mostly all re-purposed stuff which made them very inexpensive. They don't take that long to make either and I like them better so I doubt I will ever buy underwear again.

 ~I am trying to finish up a rag rug (with completely free materials) that I am making for my nursery classroom at church. We wanted a little rug for them to play with toys on when we get down from our seats. I work on this rug mostly in the mornings when I am having my quiet time.

~ Last Sunday was May Day and so we had fun making some baskets to share. We took some to friends, sent some to the nursing home and then Megan had fun delivering them to most of our neighborhood.

 We used things that we already had on hand to make the baskets and then fill them too. No money was spent but hopefully days were brightened.

 ~The other day we cleaned up a bunch of sticks in our yard and then made a fire which I cooked our supper over. Less electricity was used plus we cleaned up the yard. Hooray!

 ~I have started using the clothesline again (I do take a break for the winter  :-) ) . I enjoy the fresh air plus knowing that we saved some money.

 ~Jonathan made a cute chuck wagon for homeschool event using wood scraps that we had on hand. Again - no money was used but it worked great. I was so proud of his skills and willingness to work on this. The wooden wheels impressed me the most.

~Ken tilled my garden for me. I think gardening saves us quite a bit on our food bill each year. Today the boys and I added some chicken manure mixed with leaves to the garden and then they tilled it again. It is looking pretty good. I was able to planted onions, peas and potatoes so far. It is exciting to get going on things so early in the season for us.

~We washed zip lock and bread bags and re-used them.

~ I used rags instead of paper towels.

~I don't use any dryer sheets in my dryer. I don't have much trouble with static either so I don't miss them.

~I made and gave some homemade gifts.

~I wanted to read a certain book but instead of purchasing it I ordered it through the library.

~We drink water between meals and for some meals as well. No pop at our house (except on rare special occasion) or koolaid or other sugary drinks. Very little juice as well. We drink water, milk (and we are blessed with my parents giving us a lot of raw goats milk lately), yogurt smoothies (from yogurt that I make), herbal tea and coffee (Ken).

~I made yogurt and cheese from the excess milk from my parents.

~I saved the whey from the cheese making and have used it for soaking grains and other baking.

What frugal activities have you done lately?

Daily Bible Reading Challenge

How did you Bible time go last week? Did you grow in your understanding? Was it a part of every day? There have been different things in my life that really have caused me to work at digging deeper about various subjects and that has been very fun. I wanted to truly understand God's word so that I can share his truth with others.

From my Bible reading last week I here are some treasures that I found:

What caused me to worship God more?
"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
"For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen."
Romans 11:33-36

What a great reminder of the amazing God that we have.

What verse really touched me?
I read the book of Ruth last week and I find that account an inspiring one of people showing kindness to others and God blessing that kindness. Here are a couple of passages I would like to share:
Ruth 2:10-12 "Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?" Boaz replied to her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. May the Lord reward your work,  and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge."

Ruth 4:14 & 15 "The the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him."

What prompted me to action?

Matthew 21:21 & 22 "And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, "Be taken up and cast into the sea," it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

I believe that God can do anything but still sometimes you wonder if He will choose to work in the situations that you are concerned about. I am seeking His help to have more faith and to grow in my prayer life.

What interesting fact did I find?
Matthew 24:44 "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will."

So many people seem to think they have a very good idea of when Jesus is coming again - this clearly states that He will be coming when you don't expect it. So we just need to always be ready. Have your lamp full of oil and ready!

What treasures have you found in God's word lately?