God Doesn't Wink At Me

I was reading this morning in my devotional time and I read that some people see God as a great grandfather in the sky who winks at sin and says that you are a good person - it's ok.  Well, I have to say that I have been guilty of this myself.  Sometimes when I loose my temper or have a bad attitude, I will think, "God knows me.  He knows I'm basically a good person, so he will laugh along at all my little slip ups - it's just me!"

While God is merciful and loving and kind and loves me more than anyone on this earth possibly could, He does not overlook my "slip ups".  Sin is sin.  God and I do not have a special understanding.  God never takes a light view of it, no matter how small.  His mercy is awesome, but I must confess my sin with a repentent heart.  He is quick to forgive, and I must be diligent in trying to live a life that brings glory and honor to Him.

God never changes.  He is the same God that we see in the Old Testament and the New Testament.  He is long suffering, but is also able to deliver discipline with a firm and mighty hand!  I have been, praise the Lord, a receiver of His discipline and it can be painful!  But He loves me and I feel that too in those times.  All of God's kids get disciplined, so I count myself worthy and happy to receive these corrections - some easy some not so much!

As an aside...
Ben, my 7 year old, made me a great spot on the porch for my devotions in the morning!  What a blessing he is!

The view from my chair

My special spot!

Isn't this beautiful!?

Change Without Leaving Your Bed

Change is inevitable, as we all know, however, I have found it is how you embrace change that really matters. This is about a different kind of change - an inner change of thoughts and attitudes.   I can be lying in bed and a little thought can whisper something negative, i.e. "I'm never going to have energy in the mornings because I'm so old", ...then..."What if I'm so old my husband doesn't want me anymore"....then..."What if he finds someone else?"....then....more ugly thoughts based on nothing!  Then I am mad at myself, mad at my husband and this has colored my whole day!  Yikes!  All before setting one foot out of bed!  Nothing has happened except that I opened my eyes!  Has this happened to you?  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we must take EVERY thought captive - "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  Now, instead of getting all upset, I work my way back though those ugly thoughts and see the truth.  My husband has never showed any sign of wanting anyone else and has actually always been pretty loving, and once I set one foot out of the bed, energy comes.  I pray and ask God to help me to take captive EVERY thought and bring it under His Word.  How quickly I can get on the roller coaster of life without anything in my world really changing except my thoughts!   So, I've ridden this roller coaster of emotions all from one little thought about not having energy as soon as my eyes pop open!  Now, I replace that one little negative thought with one positive one and, volia!  Now my day is colored with a positive outlook.  All from taking thoughts captive and not allowing the enemy to whisper his little lies to me.   Now on to more creative avenues...

I have started the Charlotte Mason method in my homeschool and it is working out beautifully.  I thought Ben, my 7 year old, and I were going to have to part ways, particularly in math.  I started this approach a week ago and it has made a HUGE difference!  I am having to unschool me!  We are spending lots of time outdoors and alternating subjects like math and language arts with Art Appreciation and Music and Dance.  Wonderful fun and he is enjoying school again!

We are getting settled in our new home and are enjoying being so close to church and Gene's work.  I planted flowers and have made a little outdoor room on our porch.  Home!  More coming, but it's a good start.  Vegetable gardening with our neighbors this year and it is going to be great!  There is also a small orchard here so looking forward to apples, peaches and, I think, pears.  Lots of canning in my future!   Cabbage is already planted and growing.  My neighbor is going to help me can sauerkraut.  I love sauerkraut! 

Our garden spot and apple trees

Our Front Porch

Swing

Living Room

Ben and Grace having school

Cafe Table for Lattes and Tea

Gracie

As part of our homeschool now, we are having lifeskills classes.  Ben just made muffins:
1 3/4 c. Flour
1/3 c. Sugar
2 t. baking powder
1t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/8 t. ground ginger
1 egg lightly beaten
1/4 c. milk
3/4 c. Almond Joy Coffee Creamer by Int'l Delights
1/4/ c. vegetable oil

Combine the first 8 ingredients.  Combine egg, milk and oil:  stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fill greased muffin cups with batter.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. This was based off of another recipe but we tweaked it and made it our own.  The original recipe called for 3/4 cups of milk and 1/2 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. nutmeg, and 1/8 t. ground allspice.  We LOVE the Almond Joy creamer and it really gives the muffins a wonderful flavor!  The original also had you filling the muffin cups partially, adding apple butter filling, and covering with more batter.  However, I didn't have apple butter, so we are going a la carte!  You can also add the topping of 1/2 c. chopped pecans and 3 T. suger, but we left that off also.  No nuts!

My ETSY shop is doing great!  Not sure if I'm opening a physical shop here yet or not.  There is a really cute shop here, but right now it's full of stuff!  I'm now on Pinterest so you can follow me there also.

Until we meet again, may God bless you richly in all you do!
Kim

Decluttering and Loving It!

I spent all of last week, well between spinning special orders :) , decluttering!  We were living in total chaos - piles everywhere.  Everytime you walked down the hall, something would fall off the bookshelf.  "Mama, where are my ....?" was a daily occurence.  "Kim, do I have any clean underwear?"  Boxes of fiber filled our bedroom.  The kid's playroom was so cluttered with toys that they didn't even play in there.  I dreaded everytime I had to go into the pantry, because I had to step over and on stuff in the floor.  And if I got a can off the shelf, 2 more would fall on the floor.  I had about 47 jars of pickles I had canned from 07 that had turned to mush.  My dishwasher and table were catch all places for more piles.  YIKES!  So, last week, I don't know if it's menopause setting in, or just the good Lord chastising me for this total failure in being a keeper at home, I decided "THAT"S IT!"  I wished I had taken before and after pics, but I didn't.  We have given 3 carloads of stuff to Habitat for Humanity and thrown out 2 truckloads of trash.  Now, I am seeing the light!!!  I love it!!  I can relax, well as much as I can relax!  When Gene came home and saw the bedroom with no fiber boxes or homeschool stuff, he started running from one wall to the other - jumping and skipping around like a school boy, saying "I can walk , I can walk, I can walk!" 
I moved the kids bedroom into the playroom and got rid of a lot of the toys they don't play with anymore.  They love it!  They are spending more time in there creating and reading!  Who would have thought??  There clothes are all folded and organized and Gracie comes out every morning dressed and ready for the day! 
I made their bedroom my fiber room and homeschool storage.  That room is a mess right now, but that's the only one!  I will tackle that this week.  Then deep cleaning and we are all ready for the holidays!!  

Pantry - note floor and organization of canned goods!

Cleared top!

No clutter!

My linen closet.  It has a floor!  I haven't seen that in years!  This is a closet where you would pull something out and close the door quickly by leaning into it with all your weight until it latched!

If I can do it, you can do it!!!  And I can't begin to say how much joy and peace come with the hard work.  Word of warning:  Your home will look much worse in this process before it looks better.  Decluttering is a messy business, but so worth it.  God made us women to be keepers of our homes and that is to be taken seriously.  When we have a clean home we bring honor and our Lord and to our family. 

Take care!
Kim