Reflection on Love

Charity suffereth long,

and is kind;

charity envieth not;

charity vaunteth not itself,

is not puffed up, 

Doth not behave itself unseemly,

seeketh not her own,

is not easily provoked,

thinketh no evil;

I have dealt with various things lately that have caused me much anxiety and stolen joy from my heart and time from my family. I am in the midst of quite reflection on things and people in my life. I have fervently asked God to help me get past some hurt, be less critical and not seek to return evil for evil. The verse above is plastered every where: on cards, plaques, and pictures, but I never really gave it much thought. Today the Lord has used it to guide me and I have fully read and studied each line. If I am loved by friends then it will look like the above verse, If I am truly loving others then I will be like the scripture. I can't give my time and energy for anything less. I can gauge my relationships by it and I can gauge my own behavior by it.  For the sake of my family I must cling to my vision of home and not leave my heart so open for distraction. I will purpose to give myself to my family and church and seek less of others. I need God's approval, not my peers. I need to serve God, my husband and  children. I am convinced I will find fulfillment in that like no other relationship can give. It has been a hard learning experience, it has hurt, but I am ready to move on.

This post is probably just for me.  A reminder, a bridge to get from where I am now to where I see in my heart that I want to be.  After all, a blog is nothing more than a journal for me. Perhaps it will help someone else, it has helped me by just writing it.

It is time to prioritize and set my face and not look back. I have a great mission field right here and now, I need to look no further for purpose or validation.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

I know my blog is generally light-hearted and upbeat, but there are valleys here at Treasures Unseen as well as mountains. :)

Family Style Learning

My favorite!




She just learned to say "polar bear", "beaver", "wolf" and she loves her teacher.



It takes a lot longer to get through lessons with toddlers, of course, but I would not trade our life for peace and quite. I have been made into a different person by this sweet journey and for that I am forever thankful.


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All About Spelling

When I say that I have tried most spelling programs, trust me, I am not exaggerating. Here is a small list: Spelling Power, Spell to Write and Read, BJUP, Sequential Spelling....I'll stop there, you get the point.

I have been homeschooling for 10 years and I love the choices we have when it comes to materials. However, after reviewing most of those I was still dissatisfied with our spelling program. I felt it was important to teach the why's of spelling not just list of words.

Enter, All About Spelling.

I don't even remember how I learned about it. I am just glad I did. It takes the strengths of  most of the programs I listed above and puts them together in an easy to use, scripted format. My son (10) loves it and I am seeing that he retains most of the spelling rules. (Now, if I could just get him fired up about writing....that's another post). Review is built in, the materials are easy to use, gather and are pleasing to the eye.  The price is amazing for what you get!


If you have ever tried one of the very popular programs where the teacher/mom spends hours building her teachers guide and must watch DVD's to learn how to implement it? If so then you will be amazed that the Author, Marie Rippel, wrote a program based on those ideas and made it so easy to use that it requires almost NO teacher preparation time. I am not kidding!

It is a beautiful program. Check it out. If you have questions the author will answer your email herself. I dont think you will be disappointed.



Blessings,

Encouragement to Keep On

Well, If I cant put together a good thought right now, Kelly at Generation Cedar can and this is good reading.

http://www.generationcedar.com/main/2010/05/building-character-mother-in-her-realm.html

Just click the link to read this post.

No, I have not forgot that I have a blog....

..it is just that we are coming to the end of spring revival season. If you don't know what that means for our family here is an older post about that. :)

I am gearing up to make a trip to the annual homeschool conference. Can't Wait! This year it will be just me and Jessie and I think it will be a wonderful trip and a sweet time to spend together with coffee, conversation and books.

I am trying to have a garden this year, my first one! But, if you read the link above then need I say that revival and gardens don't work too well for a mom who is suppose to be homeschooling too. Last year we plowed the spot and never planted....I have high hopes...once again we have plowed. We will see what happens. Now I see why all of the old timers told me at our first church that they always brought the preacher fresh veggies, the preacher did not have time in the spring (revivals) to plant and in the fall (revivals) to reap. Up until recently the churches held morning and evening services, 6 days, so the Man of God had to be all about God's work that week, reading , studying and praying. My husband says the garden is all mine, he has not the time nor the inclination to garden. He says he had enough of that growing up and he does not even like to eat vegetables. :( He is more of the livestock type. We have a new cow in the barn the kids have named "Sirloin", you can put 2 and 2 together and figure that one out.


We will continue school throughout the summer, no one here really likes hot weather anyway and we just as soon be inside.

On the weight loss issue, I finally hit the 30 pound loss mark! I hit a stall for about 6 weeks. But, I am continuing on no matter how long it takes, Lord willing.

Oh well, that is all of the time I have for a short update right now. Got to get ready for....revival meeting.

Blessings,

Just Pictures

Remembering to Nurture

Somedays in the midst of homeschooling four children, housework and all the other duties I try to attend to it is hard to remember a simple truth that I ran across while reading this afternoon.

"Truly the children are like the tender plants.....there must be more sunshine than cloud, more pleasant warmth than winter cold to bring them to their fruitage." (from The Cross Triumphant by Florence M. Kingsley, a Lamplighter book)



The three R's are important, but their heart is my greatest cause and I am reminded, "Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands..." (Proverbs 14:1)



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Testing the Homemade Laundry detergent

Here we are, starting with a stain. This is ketchup and mustard. I put equal amounts on each piece of old t-shirt.

Okay, I washed the fabric labeled homemade in the detergent I made. The one labeled store bought was with a leading name brand. The next two pictures are after the 1st initial wash.

As you can see, the store bought brand took away more of the stain. I must note that I just thought about the fact that my store detergent has bleach in it, so I am thinking that my test may not be as reliable as I had hoped. Alright, we continue on....

I then treated both stains and re-washed them in separate loads with the same detergents again. Here are the results:

You can just barely see the mustard remaining on the homemade cloth. But, I am thinking that that store bought with the bleach has skewed my results. Humm, overall I am quite pleased with the results of the homemade detergent, especially since I try to pre-treat all stains and not let them dry on the clothes if possible.

Here is the link to the exact recipe that I used. Homemade Laundry Detergent.

Also, I have read that hard water will affect the ability of your detergent and that adding salt will help this. I have really hard water and have been adding bleach to my loads of whites.

The jury is still out as to whether I will continue with making detergent. I really like to try to keep the clothes looking their best. I am watching now to see if the colors are fading. My OCD is showing. : )

Half the Price and Half the Calories

So what is it that I am up to now? Well, I kind of have a one track mind and when I get going on something I really get involved. At the present it is saving as much money as I can running this household. To me that is the best way I can bring money into our home. I think for the first time in my married life I am truly being a good steward of what God has given us and the money that my husband works so hard to make. Now, let me say that I have never been a big shopper for stuff that most women go for, clothes, shoes, etc. but when I went to the grocery store or "stuff"- mart I thought it was pretty much open season and what I deemed necessary I bought, no matter the cost. My easy going honey never questioned me. So when I decided to do this little challenge with myself I dont think I expected to see that I could save as much money as I have. The first week as you know from this post, I cut $100.00 off the total at checkout. Last week I bought enough food for a nine day menu, complete with 3 meals a day and snacks, for $120.00. My honey said he is getting spoiled with me preparing his lunch and getting up to make his breakfast. ( Yes, I confess, I have been married 17 1/2 years and have never done this. What can I say? I am married to an easy to please man.) This, by the way, is saving us about 40-50  dollars a week.

Oh, I am having fun with this! Every time I think I need something my first thought is "Can I make it?"  With a basic stock in the cabinet I am finding that I can.

Today's home made, money saving project:

Home Made Chocolate Milk Mix

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa Powder
1 cup Sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon Vanilla
dash of salt

Combine cocoa, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Add water, and mix until smooth. Bring this mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for one minute, be careful this does not boil over. Remove from heat, when this cools add the vanilla. 

I put mine in an old squeeze bottle. Refrigerate. It should be good for 2 or 3 weeks ( It will never last that long here)

By the time I got around to taking a photo the glasses were empty.

The savings:
I priced a can of Hershey's Syrup at Ingles for 1.28 for 16 ounces.
This made 14 ounces for .70 cents.


This took me all of five minutes!

The biggest payoff is the fact that the first ingredient listed on the store bought syrup was High Fructose Corn Syrup. Mine figures at 50 calories per 2 TBS. The other is 100 calories for the same amount.


Really, I am having too much fun with this. I am dreaming of gardens and sewing......oh, the possibilities. I can't wait to see what I can make next. Got any suggestions?

Blessings!

Little Jenna, the Eager Beaver

Here is Jenna, begging to "do school". She has effortlessly learned her letters with this little gem of a book.

A is for Anna Belle by Tasha Tudor.

In this video we are using the Victory Drill Book for her to see how fast she can name the letters.

IF YOU VALUE YOUR FREEDOM TO EDUCATE YOUR CHILDREN.....

....as you see fit, then take a look at this blog post and the articles that it refers to. In all seriousness, it is getting ridiculous to see how many people in these United States are actually Socialist thinkers. Just take a look at all of the comments following these "news" pieces and you will see that way too many folks think that children should be turned over to the government so they will get a "well rounded" education. I could say a whole lot but it would probably not even make sense right now seeing how perturbed I am. And while you are at it skip on over to Parental Rights.org and GET INVOLVED!

And just so anyone who reads this will know, my children all know who Darwin was and what his THEORY was all about. They will continue to learn about him and all the others while also learning what God's words says about it. I fully expect them to be ever so capable to defend their faith and to be able to give a much better answer than I ever could for it! The way I see it, I am doing more than what my local Public School is doing because God's Word is not taught anymore and The THEORY of evolution is presented as FACT. Perhaps we should just start with the definition of the word theory.

Ok, I am done with this. Time to get a smile on and thank God for the freedom and for my children. Lets go learn some science and history, perhaps we will read the Constitution.

Frugality

In the last post I talked about trying to save money. Well, the experiment was this: See how much money I could save by not buying anything pre-packaged, with the exception of things like rice and dry beans and such. For me this was cutting out the 12.00 box of Hot-Pockets, Boxed cereal and even my Smart Ones. I bought no boxed cookies, no granola bars. All of these things are not good for you anyway.

So I planned my meals and planned for homemade snacks. Let me just say here, I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Baking, baking and washing dishes.

The end result at the cash register was this, normally I can easily spend $200.00 and then $40.00 at the Dollar General getting paper products, soap and household cleaners, I spent $140.00 total. A saving of $100.00. WOW! That is a lot of money!

Bottom line is you pay for convenience. Not only with money either as most of what we gave up this week is bad for our health.

So here's to working hard and saving. Lord, give me stamina. :)

Home Made Automatic Dishwasher Detergent- The Verdict

Well, in my quest to save as much money as I could at the grocery store this week I decided that I would try some of these home made concoctions to use around the house. Since the ingredients were easy to find and the store bought alternatives are where a lot of money is spent, I decided to start with detergent.

Here is the recipe:

1 C. Borax
1 C. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1/2 cup of salt
4 packets of lemonade Kool-Aid mix.

White Vinegar for the rinse.


Barring extreme user failure, and I don't know how I could have messed it up, this was awful.....AWFUL......So horrible that I had to wash the entire load by hand to get the white whatever off of the dishes. Even after washing it all again with 2 cycles of Cascade.....yep.....all by hand! By hand= not happy homemaker.

So there you go. Learn from me. I read several reviews before I tried this. All of the fine ladies warning me that it did not work did not stop this headstrong Southern woman from trying it anyway. :)

If you venture on and try it for yourself, be warned, this is what you may end up with:

On a positive note. The home made laundry detergent seems to be working great. I read that this recipe equals out to cost about .01 cent per load. I have always been a die-hard Gain user. Note: I will not give up my store bought fabric softener. :)

A Budding Photographer

These lovely pictures of Jenna were taken by my daughter Jessie (14). She got a new camera for Christmas and it has fueled a great passion in her for taking pictures. (That was exactly what I wanted it to do). She let me blog my two favorites on here, be watching her blog for more.

It is Well With My Soul

A little singing after church last night. These ladies are such a blessing. This is one of my favorite songs that they sing.