Don't be taken captive

  We have many ideas presented to us each and every day through the things we read, hear and see. Many ideas come with a hidden agenda that we quite possibly will not recognize. The devil is a deceiver and it is his goal to make us believe things that are not right.

  This verse is a very important one to understand and follow:

  "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." Col. 2:8

We need to search God's word each and every day and be on our guard against false teaching.

Simple Pleasures

 Yesterday I had fun catching on camera some of the simple things that we enjoyed (and then I had trouble getting them on the blog last night for some reason - but here they are now.

  Miniature apple pies made by Mara were one of the treats. She thought they would be fun to make and though things like that seem a bit tedious to make in my mind she enjoyed it. We all enjoyed the result!

  What a fun morning snack. Warm apple pie while working on schoolwork.

 I did do some baking and we enjoyed warm fresh bread at lunch. Warm bread might be challenging to slice but you can't beat the taste.

 A rag rug just finished.

 More work on rag rugs being done. How I love using up those stained and worn out clothes! Aaron is cutting strips for me and

 Jonathan is cutting strips for his own rug that he is working on. They enjoy cutting while I read aloud to them (another of those simple pleasures that we enjoy!).

The day ended with a less simple but still fun activity.

Ken had bought us tickets to a Harlem Globe Trotter event as a Christmas surprise. We enjoyed seeing their antics and talents. IN the picture above one player is getting down after standing up on top of the hoop for a while.

I hope your week is going well! 

New Life for an Old Sweater

 

 I had this yellow cardigan that I had worn quite a bit but then it developed some stains on it. I decided maybe it would be fun to do something a little funky to cover up the stains.

 I had a fair amount of wool felt scraps on hand so I cut them into flower and leaf shapes and started sewing them on. It was a fun hand sewing project. I do projects like that during my prayer time and when we work on our memory work. Keeping my hands busy with simple things works well for me while I keep my mind on other things.

The sweater definitely looks different. I think it is kind of fun and cheerful. I also like that I was able to extend the life of an old sweater.

 Do you enjoy hand sewing? I would love to hear any tips or creative ideas that you have for extending the life of old clothes!

 Mara and I did some other sweater repurposing yesterday. I look forward to sharing that with you soon.

I am linking to the Homestead Barn Hop.

 

Have Patience

It is my desire to grow to be more patient this year. That is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and it will be a result of His work in me. One of the ways that they Holy Spirit works is through the Bible and so I decided it would be a good idea to look at some verses that talk about patience to encourage me in that area. I hope they encourage you as well!

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant" 1 Corinthians 13:4

"And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all." 1 Thessalonians 5:14
 "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!" Psalms 37:7

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" Colossians 3:12
 "As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience" Luke 8:15

"with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love," Ephesians 4:2

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."  Romans 12:12

  I am so very grateful for God's patience with me as I make mistakes over and over again. I hope that I can learn to be like Him and be patient with others. No matter if the situation is stressful - whatever is going on- I want to be like Jesus and be patient! 

Reflections on 2013 and Goals for 2014

I have had fun reading over my list of goals for 2013 lately. It is fun to think back over the year and reflect on what went well, the areas that we have grown in and some of the struggles I have had. It was a good year and God again blessed us abundantly. I can never say thank you enough!

  Simplifying and Organizing were big goals that I had for 2013. These went well in many areas- we did continue to go through the stuff in our house and clear things out and use things up. We ended up having two garage sales though one of them we did with some others from church and we ended up dealing with all the things that didn't sell and I think we may have ended up with more in our home afterwards that we put out to sell in the first place possibly. Anyway, it wasn't all that successful for decluttering.

  We did do very little shopping (other than food this year). I think I bought a total of 3 clothing items that were needed one for each of the oldest kids. (Ken did buy some things for himself - he does his own clothes shopping and isn't into challenges like I am.) We concentrated on mending things and using what we had instead. We were also blessed with some hand-me-downs and a few other gifts as well. This week I decided to do a thorough going through of our clothes to see if we did need to make a buying trip after this year of not buying. I had a paper and pen ready to make a list on but nearly found that unnecessary. I did write down that Jonathan needed some dress shoes (we found some cowboy boots yesterday at a second hand store that he is quite happy about), and would be needing tennis shoes and socks pretty soon. Mara needed one undergarment and would like some new sandals come summer, Aaron said he didn't need anything (and he didn't - neither does Megan) and I don't really need anything but I would like some dress boots, some sandals and a couple of nice new tops. I did find a "new" sweater and jeans for me at a second hand store too. Still looking for boots - I am quite picky and don't want to spend money on something I don't like really well. So instead of finding that we needed very much stuff instead we filled several bags with stuff to donate that we don't need. I am just amazed at how well God provides for us.

   My goal to not drive more than 3 times a week rather went by the wayside a few months into the year. It isn't that we went all the time but we only walked to places like church a few times and then we didn't bike around nearly as often as I would have liked either. It seemed like our schedule got rather busy and we were running far more than I hoped. Oh well, things like that can happen.

 This ended up being a really good year for us at keeping up with dishes (I have actually kind of learned to like washing dishes) and laundry. The kids chore charts were updated and we have put them to use quite faithfully. The kids are helping far more than they used to and it is so nice for me! Sometimes I can feel a little lazy with the kids even taking care of various meals.

  Menu planning went fairly well and life certainly went more smoothly the times that I did have a menu made. With the kids cooking ( a total of 3 breakfasts and 2 suppers) it was very important for us to have the meal figured out on the menu ahead of time.

  We did do a lot of "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do or do without". We saved money but didn't end up paying off the mortgage early - instead we made our emergency fund bigger and saved up money for buying new land.

   I had a goal to pay more attention to others and minister to them. I still have lots of room for growth in this area but it sure was a fun one to work on!  One of the areas I did really concentrate on was my marriage and I feel very blessed in this area. I think this has been one of our best years yet.

 This year....

2014 will probably be one with quite a few changes and some times of uncertainty. Yesterday we did buy some land (near here- on the Mississippi) that we hope to build a new home on. We will need to sell this home before we build so we will have quite a bit of limbo time which we are not quite sure how we are going to handle just yet. Thinking and praying on that one! :-)

Because of the fact that we could be spending the Summer (or another time this year) camping out or in a rental house or something like that I don't plan on making any major goals for certain projects or big challenges because I simply don't know what we are going to be facing this year.

I do have the goals of:

• Being patient. I think this will be a big one this year. So many changes ahead- patience will be needed!
• Serving others (with my children). It is so easy to get caught up in our own lives and what we need and want - I want our focus to be broader than that.
• Encouraging the elderly at the nursing homes. I have been wanting for a while now to see about doing a program every so often there (like singing and playing music for them) as I think they would like that. I just need to get it down.
• Learning more about harvesting and using wild foods. Ken got Mara and I mushroom books for Christmas so we are ready to go looking. There is quite a lot of foraging opportunities at our new place. I am excited about that!
• Keeping my focus on Jesus even in the midst of change.
• Being better prepared for times like sickness or other changes so that life doesn't get chaotic.

A couple of years ago I thought it would be fun to see if some year we could enter something in every class of the Home arts department at the county fair. We choose this year as Mara is now old enough to enter as an adult and so she and I would cover the adult categories and the younger 3 would do the kids. I don't know if it will work this year since we will probably be moving and building a new house. It is however still a fun dream that we have. Who knows.... maybe we will accomplish it anyhow.

  It is fun to think and dream about a new year. It feels like a fresh slate that God has given us. Let's use it to His glory!

Beautiful Birds ~ A fun art project

 Some of the kids and I had fun doing some painting not long ago. Last year my Dad had made me some wood slices for me to use for decorating at a banquet. After that was over I have had fun using them in other decorating ways but I also thought they would be fun to paint on.

 So a couple of weeks ago I pulled them out and we got to painting. Jonathan isn't so interested in that sort of art (he is very good at other kinds however) so he (and Ken) skipped out on the project but the rest of us enjoyed it.

 Megan working on a blue jay. She decided it ended up looking like a Sailor Blue Jay. I think it is pretty cute. Megan loves art but can get quite frustrated when things don't go perfectly. We had to work on learning to accept our best even though it might not be quite what we imagined.

 Mara had fun making a cardinal.

 I worked on a chickadee as they have long been one of my favorite birds. They stay here in the winter time when many birds leave and they are so cheerful!

Aaron painted an Indigo Bunting.

I painted Matthew 6:26-27 on another circle. It says:
    "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? "  

  Our little art project was pretty fun. It caused us to spend some time pouring over the bird books in deciding which ones to paint. We also studied them a little better in order to paint them. We are obviously not expert painters but each little project gives us a little more confidence to try other projects. Personally I prefer to decorate my house with things like this that we have made, like this, or things that are made, photographed or painted by people I know. To me they are much more interesting then some great piece of art that was mass produced.  

   I also just really enjoyed spending some creative time with my children working on this.

 Do you like to paint or work on creative projects like this?