Mr C goes to college

Hard to believe, but Youngest started college this week. He resisted greatly having his picture taken, but I played the "mom" card and won out.  You only have one "very first day of college" in your college career.  

Tuesday evening, after he finished his second day of calculus (what 17 yr old takes a class like that his first semester?!)  and he was bouncing off the wall with excitement.  He tried to explain how awesome it was, but the words math and awesome do not belong in the same sentence in my world. This is the kid who solves a Rubics cube, in close to a minute, and says it's simple because it's just an algorithm... Who is this kid???  He tried to explain how fun and challenging it was to solve the problem below, but my mind couldn't fathom any of it.  

Between the toes

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Was so surprised

when

Youngest 

reported

that it was 

RAINING!!! 

So I got him

to join

me

outside

 

 A little dancing

in the driveway

 some sloshing

in the only

puddle we could find

 There's got to be something to be said

for making a mess!

  You pray for rain, 

you gotta deal with the mud too. 

That's a part of it.
Denzel Washington 

  

I'm a little slow, but I'm learning...

Words fly through my head and I write posts in my head, but yet somehow, they don't make it to blog world.  There are times that I want to be so transparent, but yet I'm fearful.  Why is that?  What am I afraid of?  Afraid that someone won't like what I say?  Maybe that you won't "get it" like do or I won't make sense and you'll look at me like my kids do. Maybe it's acceptance or worry. So what's the deal?  I'll must confess that I've edited, revised, deleted, and revised, and still I wonder...


Am I afraid of what you might find out?  That you'll be disappointed or disagree and somehow leave?  Kind of silly, but just ask... Go ahead.  Ask that question... Yes, I had an abusive father, I was bullied and teased in high school (no this is not why we home educated two of our three), I was a "C" student in college and it's a wonder I got that, I'm sure Youngest inherited his ADHD from me, I can't make myself follow a recipe, I'm a rebel at heart, my prayer life is not what it should be, and please don't ask me for directions for anywhere important.  Are you still with me?  No, I don't need to see a shrink, my pastor says I'm fine... Really! LOL.

I can zip through a fiction book like I'm breaking the sound barrier, but put a non-fiction book in my hands, and my mind literally goes blank.  It takes me a while to process and re-process, take notes, underline, and what ever else it takes for me NOT to forget what I've read and learned. This last March I began reading (oh so slowly), One Thousand Gifts, as well as When a Woman Trusts God, and Sheet Music (I dare you to check this one out).  Now if you look at these three books, they don't seem to have anything in common and all is fine, but then I started to reading and guess what?   All three of the books (plus a fiction book) all came to the same subject at the SAME time.  

Whoa!  Suddenly it's all that pops in front of me - a quote on FB, "Don't you trust me" from Youngest, following through on commitments...  Each time Pastor Paul speaks, the message seem to somehow reflect what I had studied that week.  God has been using not just His word, but is using all His sources to get it into my fluffy brain. TRUST. Okay God, I get it!  You want me to listen, take to heart and live this, right?    Chapters 7-9 of Ann's book stopped me flat out.  God's not taking the soft route here, but is constantly reminding, guiding, prodding (probably nudging is more correct), showing, loving, leading...


Ann says "I've to get this thing, what it means to trust, to gut-believe in the good touch of God toward me, because it's true: I can't fill with joy until I learn how to trust: 
  

Romans 15:13:  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

John 6:29    "Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

She said the word pisteuo (which is Greek, really I looked it up) is used in the NT (over 248 times according to the 2001 Strongs) and is often translated as "belief" but she also learned that pisteuo ultimately means "to put one's faith in; to trust."  To commit to trust.  Wow!  (pg. 146-7)

"This is the trust I lack: to know that if disaster strikes, He carries me even there."  Ann (pg. 148)

"Worry is the warning light that God as been shoved to the sideline.  The moment you put Him back at the center, you have peace again."  Rick Warren

God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them."  Max Lucado

John 14:1 
The Message:  "Don't let this throw you. You trust God, don't you? Trust me."
NIV:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me."  

So, when it comes down to it, through giving thanks for His blessings, (though I may perceive "I" or someone made the bread, sew, ability to play an instrument, cleaned the toilets, picking blueberries, etc), I am learning to count those blessings and that He is the One in Whom I trust. He is the one who gives me these gifts, lovingly when I do not deserve or always appreciate them.  And His ultimate gift?  What would be your answer as to how God is blessing you?  Is Trust easy for you? 

Little Miss Muffet - Making Cottage Cheese

Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider, who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

 I'm not a fan of spiders, though we once had a pet tarantula, but I'll fancy to say that, after my cooking adventure tonight, it wasn't the spider that scared Miss Muffet away. It was the part of the process to get the curds that must have scared her.  


There was something just not right with breakfast of milk and Grapenuts. The milk was clumpy and smelled funny so  I double checked the expiration and I still had 5 days! I was little upset to think that lost close to $6 of milk because both gallons were soured.  I could have put two gallons of gas in the car!

There had to be a way to use all this milk without pouring it down the drain. I research revealed I could make cottage cheese with it.  I really was not wanting to take up my whole day doing this, so I was thrilled to find it would take very little of my day.

What I found was a simple process that yielded a surprising yummy result.  I now know why the spider scared Miss Muffet.  Her mother must have made her some homemade cottage cheese!  If you'd like to see the recipe and result, head over to my cooking blog, try it, and either leave me a note there or come back here to tell me how it turned out.  Me?  I'll certainly make cottage cheese again!

Answers to prayers.

I have been so blessed by friends. Yesterday, I spent the day listening to Youngest and "P" his best friend play.  They did everything from legos, swimming, PS2, watching the A-Team, and just being boys.  Though I'll never figure out how in the world they hit a baseball and it bounced into an incredibly small drainage pipe... Oh well!  Later that evening, as I sat talking with my dear friend Eva, "P's" mom, I realized I didn't get to do that much, but just the short time we had was a blessing. She challenged me to tell you about how God has ,strike>blessed provided mightily for us this week, so here it is!


When we moved into this house, it had a stove and while I wasn't thrilled with it, it did work.  Over the past 16 years, it has slowly been dying and this week I kicked  that 30 yr. old stove waved it goodbye!

• No more will I have to use a pair of pliers to turn on or off the burners! 
• No more will I use matches or lighter to light the burners! 
• No longer will I have to turn on and off the oven 5-6 times before it will light.  
• No more will I try to calculate how many degrees higher it will decide to bake (somewhere between 150º-200º) when baking or having to throw something out because it changed temps while baking. 

Our family loves to have people over for homemade pizza and some of those families have taken note of our wonderful stove.  This week we were GIVEN two (YES!!!) stoves FREE!!!!!  Yes, I was doing the Snoopy Dance!!!  The first stove arrived on Monday and is a really fancy nice electric drop in range.  We were thrilled with this, but knew it may be a while before we get it installed because we have gas (okay, we use gas instead of electric for our oven). But later that SAME day, a different friend called and said she had a 9-yr. old gas stove...  It was blessing in disguise, because Honey discovered our old gas line had a leak in it.  So after installing a new gas line and shut-off valve - here it is!  I've not actually cooked on it yet, but the family is hinting at pizza! 

I think most of you know that we homeschool two of our kids.  I try get as many of our books used as possible to cut down on expenses, because it can be quite costly.  Yesterday at church, I was talking to The Princess' momma, and her sister (also a school teacher) approached me. 
She happened to have some 7th grade curriculum she had used and was wanting to get it out of her house.  I have to tell you that for the last few weeks, I've been searching places that have the specific math, science, and more on sale... Guess what??? 
 
More Snoopy Dancing because included in this wonderful stack of curriculum is EXACTLY what I was looking for in math, science, and literature!!!  Is that a God thing or what!!!  I love it what He does this! 

 "If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.: Matthew 6:30 (The Message)

"Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." Acts 14:16-18

What has God done for you this last week?  Is there anything you can tell me about how you've been provided for?  I'd love to hear all about it!   

The Accidental Gardener

1 Kings 17:6 (New American Standard Bible) The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. This morning, as I went out to water my plants, I was reminded of Elijah again. Not because we've experienced miracles, or turned bears onto our enemies, or raised anyone from the dead, but because of the birds of the air.

We love to watch the birds and see their personalities, their habits, their babies, their songs etc. When we first started putting out food for the birds and squirrel, we thought *Look how we're helping the birds*, little did we know how God would take a simple act to reroute our thinking.

I'm not sure when it happened - probably some early morning when God was watching our family or maybe He was just watching the birds. He probably used one of those annoying black birds - the crow or gackle or perhaps the cowbird. But an astonishing thing happened as I was out walking in our yard - I discovered that God (via the birds) had planted corn and sunflowers in our yard. Granted, we've not grown corn or sunflowers here before, so that is why He probably only let them plant just 3 (two stalks of corn and 1 sunflower). I've carefully watered, protected them (from the every ready hands of "I almost chopped the weeds down" Dave), and watched them grow in wonder.

We were excited at first to discover we had TWO ears of corn, but now we're up to 5 ears. Just enough for a meal or two. It was such a humble reminder in this day - when we're so consumsed with "By my self" and "Do it MY way" mentality, that God really is the one who is taking care of us. If I were just to just let go and let Him instead of thinking that I have to be in control, how many more wonders would we discover? Would my life be easier? I'm not sure, but I would probably wonder and worry over a whole lot less than I do now! What do I need to let go of and let Him handle? My health? My kids? My Marriage? Okay, how about my Life? Yep, I think that about sums it up!

Matthew 6:26 (New American Standard Bible) 26"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?