A New Year's Daybook:: January 4, 2013

Today is not Monday it is  Friday January 4, 2013...

Outside my window... 
we finally have snow!! I was not sure if we would have a white Christmas but we did! This is what my husband gets to see while working, lucky man. It is a nice and warm 2 degrees out and I feel a little sad for my husband. I love looking a the snow from inside my home, not a big fan of working or walking in it.   


I am thinking...
how different life will be with my husband home more now. He will be finishing college and going to Seminary in a couple of years!


I am thankful...
for my family in 2013, and so glad we are all together! 2012 gave us some hard times but with God on your side you can make it through any storm! I am also very thankful for our church family, I know I have said this many times now but I can't help it.


In the kitchen...
a lot of leftovers from New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We have been making so much great food from my Practical Paleo Cook book. Some of the dishes are really different from what were used to eating. Since going gluten free in our home so many tummy aches and Autoimmune symptoms have left our home.  Check back starting next Tuesday for healthy meals for a large family, raw, gluten free, and organic!

I am wearing...
a black nightgown that was once a sundress, my husband's Star Wars blanket, and pink cupcake slippers.

I am creating...
a really large area to put all our garage sale items in. We are emptying our storage unit which I think is a 10X20, and full! We will save $60.00 a month and make some really good money selling everything! Since our plan is to move in 2 years for Seminary we need to sell a lot, I don't want to move everything!! We will be renting our home in Wisconsin while we are gone since it's paid for and we don't want to sell it. Or we may just leave it so we have a place to come home to in the summer while were not in school. I have such a busy month ahead labeling everything, it will most likely take the next few months since we have so much stuff.

I am going...
to make out a really good budget for the next couple of years as we begin to save!

I am reading...
Practical Paleo which has a wealth of information in it.

I am hoping...
that 2013 will be kind to all of us!

I am looking forward...
to 5 years of school with my husband, I am really so excited about his new path in life.

I am learning...
how to use my Cricut Expression Electronic Cutting Machine
My daughter is making homemade birthday cards for all the kids in our church. We are also sending them cards from our Church, this has been good for her so far.

I am hearing...
My daughters playing with new Christmas toys what a joy to hear them all get along. Lets be real with 7 daughters we have our share of fights, and fun times.

Around the house...
I am looking at all the new things my children got this year, we kept it small and relaxing which was really nice.  I think the favorite item for the little ones was the  LEGO DUPLO Disney Princess Cinderella's Carriage andLEGO DUPLO Disney Princess Cinderella's Castle along with lots of dress up clothes.
We also had a Christmas this year of things that were needed, Bed sets, and blankets with every ones favorite characters on them. Since 4 of my girls share one room we have Marvel, Star Wars, Cinderella, and Angry Birds all in one room. Each girl gets to decorate their own bed with what they like, it looks so colorful and cheerful now!

I am praying for...
my Pastor and his family, as the fight this really bad flu! Please keep them in your prayers, the youngest is still running a fever of close to 103. My pastor and his wife are the real thing, true and honest people that love to serve others. They have 5 kid's that are just the sweetest kids I have ever meet. We would love to see them Sunday but they are all still not well. I think we should keep everyone in our country in prayers, this has turned out to be the worst flu in many years.

I am pondering...
these words from today's Daily Devotions - January 4th 2013, from our church website.

Morning

“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18)

“Grow in grace”-not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward -having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to “grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.” He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know him is “life eternal,” and to advance in the knowledge of him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus-as the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of his love. If you do not desire to know him better, then you love him not, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.” Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of him in his divine nature, in his human relationship, in his finished work, in his death, in his resurrection, in his present glorious intercession, and in his future royal advent. Abide hard by the Cross, and search the mystery of his wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of his love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.

Evening
“And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.” (Genesis 42:8)
This morning our desires went forth for growth in our acquaintance with the Lord Jesus; it may be well to-night to consider a kindred topic, namely, our heavenly Joseph’s knowledge of us. This was most blessedly perfect long before we had the slightest knowledge of him. “His eyes beheld our substance, yet being imperfect, and in his book all our members were written, when as yet there was none of them.” Before we had a being in the world we had a being in his heart. When we were enemies to him, he knew us, our misery, our madness, and our wickedness. When we wept bitterly in despairing repentance, and viewed him only as a judge and a ruler, he viewed us as his brethren well beloved, and his bowels yearned towards us. He never mistook his chosen, but always beheld them as objects of his infinite affection. “The Lord knoweth them that are his,” is as true of the prodigals who are feeding swine as of the children who sit at the table.But, alas! we knew not our royal Brother, and out of this ignorance grew a host of sins. We withheld our hearts from him, and allowed him no entrance to our love. We mistrusted him, and gave no credit to his words. We rebelled against him, and paid him no loving homage. The Sun of Righteousness shone forth, and we could not see him. Heaven came down to earth, and earth perceived it not. Let God be praised, those days are over with us; yet even now it is but little that we know of Jesus compared with what he knows of us. We have but begun to study him, but he knoweth us altogether. It is a blessed circumstance that the ignorance is not on his side, for then it would be a hopeless case for us. He will not say to us, “I never knew you,” but he will confess our names in the day of his appearing, and meanwhile will manifest himself to us as he doth not unto the world.

From “Morning and Evening” by Charles H Spurgeond

 

 

 

One of my favorite things... Meri Meri Nutcracker Cupcake Kit  these are the cutest!! I have so many of these on my Amazon wish list!! I happen to love cupcakes, I love to eat them and make them, and of course cupcakes must have lots of frosting! I picked out a few other kits by Meri Meri since they are just all so cute. Here are just a few  ballet kit, Flower Fairies , Peter Rabbit , Stars and Stripes Patriotic Cupcake, and several Thanksgiving cupcake kits like Turkeys with Hats

 

Plans for the rest of the week...

since it is the end of the week not much of anything, except resting to fight off my cough.

• Finish my family binder
• Finish going through the basement
• Buy the rest of our food for Christmas with grandma
• Worship on Sunday

A little peak at my day...



Baby Claudia and Madelyn
I can't get my pictures to up load so I thought I would share a picture I found
on my website.
This was when Madelyn was 2, now Claudia is 2 and they
still play all day together!
With babies!
 
 
A simple womens daybook link up
 



Blessings,

Pamela

Preparing the Heart Week 1

I knew I wanted to have at least 1 day out of the week where I just could reflect on all that has happened around me. I guess this is kind of like a personal diary I feel comfortable sharing. A day were I can just lift life up to God for all his graces and ask for prayers that still may be needed. It is also a good time to Prepare our hearts before worship on the sabbath.


To start I have a praise! I am praising God for helping my father this past week, he has had such a bad cold over the past few weeks that I thought a hospital visit was a must. He is stubborn and would hear about no such thing and it looks like  he should be just fine. Praising God for his power of healing!

Praising God is something I just don't do enough of, I am always good at asking for prayers but I must remember to thank him as well.

Speaking of Colds we could use prayers for a lot of members in my church. It seems that almost every family I come in contact with is fighting the flu. We had our time with the flu this year as a family starting just before Christmas, as of today we are still coughing.

I seemed to not get the full blown flu like my whole family, I think it was due to the fact that my loved ones were going to need help. I took lots of things to help with my cold, 2000mg of vitamin C per day, my prenatal vitamin, and 1-2 cloves of raw garlic diced up each day. I know raw garlic just sounds really gross but if you mix it up with your finished dinner, or drink it with some Kefir it seems to go down okay. I am thinking this did wonders for me this time around!

I want to Praise the Lord for a New Year!! We made it to a brand New Year what a true blessing!! So many things happened in my life in 2012, things I would rather just put behind me. I was really happy for a new fresh start!

I praise God for all the love I was filled with in 2012! I went through Placenta Previa which was so hard for me to deal with. After all the Previa ended we welcomed our first born son into our arms. I praise God for making it to 40 weeks and in the end having a very healthy baby!

 I'm sad that I did how ever isolate myself from everyone, scared to do anything for fear I might trigger labor. This time brought my husband and I closer to the Lord, I was in fear the whole time instead of allowing Jesus to take all of my fear for me. I don't advise that one do this as it puts your body through so much stress. One of my personal resolutions for the new year and beyond is to place my fears in the loving arms of my creator. Something that may take me some time but a goal for sure.

Prayers please!!  My husband and I could use prayers as we will be living only on a home business income! My husband told me less than a month ago he felt called to become a Pastor. I was a little in shock because I thought maybe this was just a dream for him. He had talked about this many many times over the last 6 years but I guess it was just not the correct time. One can talk and think about all the things they would love to be, but with a large family in 2012 I never thought I would hear these word. He says he has a plan and I need to let him follow through with it, he told me with the Lord will be just fine. I am still in shock and at the same time very excited for him! We will have a fun and hard road ahead of us but I am up for the hard work, my husband is so worth it!

As I Prepare my heart for church this week, I want to take a moment and thank our lord and let him know that I choose Christ in 2013!! This means he comes first in everything I do, I would like to live by a saying WWJD (what would Jesus do) before I do anything!
Can you imagine how much easier it will be to make a decision if we just stop and ask ourselves WWJD before we do it. 

Before church this Sunday I will be preparing my heart to follow Christ even more in 2013!!  Asking for forgiveness for all my sins, and spending the night before church without computers or other outside distractions. I want to take my Christianity very seriously, do you? Click on this over on the sidebar to find out more!

 

 

If you would like to link up through comments please leave a comment with a link back to your post. This is a good way for others to praise God for the work he has done in your life in the past week. We would also love to be prayer warriors for you, if you need prayers lets lift them up to the Lord together!

Blessings,
Pamela

{This Moment}

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{this moment} - A single photo, capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

To see more visit Soule Mama.

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Homeschool Day!!

Every Thursday I want to blog about home schooling, and it can be anything about home schooling! I have a hard time keeping track of ideas and plans. I have folders stacked up with pictures, papers and ideas and would like to just post it here instead. I will share what we are doing each week, and what we will be using to get the job done.

January 2 -4th we are still on a winter break so I am really just grading and catching up on some things I put off till after Christmas. One of the things I chose to do for 2013 is make a House hold Binder like the one you see here. It's been fun making this binder with my daughter and husband and I can't wait to share it with you!

My girls are doing catch up on some school work this week, and were back full time January 7th!! We always do our normal school work, but we also love to add things! Here is what we are doing for fun alongside our normal day.

Monday- Christmas with Grandma at our house, we are having a themed winter Christmas party this year!

Tuesday- Normal school day and it's National Clean-off-your-desk Day! A good day to clean out our desks and school areas, a midyear cleaning.

Wednesday- National Apricot Day I think I will make apricot cookies today. This is a easy coloring sheet little kids 5 and under can color.

Thursday- Daddy's birthday is today and we will celebrate his 36th birthday!  It's also •Bittersweet Chocolate Day a good day to learn about chocolate.

Friday- Juliana's birthday is today and we will be taking the day off, she will be 7 today and she is growing so fast. Another perk you get when you home school is taking the day off for your birthday!! And for fun, it is national milk day!!

I have come up with monthly themes in our house for this year, hoping to add a little fun for the little ones. Since schooling at home is about family and togetherness I try to make it year round fun! We school year round so we have themes for the next 12 months!

January- Winter snowflakes, and our Favorite things

February- Caring and Sharing and Lent

March- Irish Culture and Easter

April- Spring and Gardens

May- Flowers and Garage Sales

June- Flags and Fathers

July- Red White and Blue

August- Beaches and School Supplies

September- Apples and Parties

October- Smells of fall and Pumpkin seeds

November- Pilgrims and Preparing

December- Advent and the Grinch

That's it for this week, I hope all of you are having a great 12 days of Christmas!

Blessings,

Pamela

Pictures in 2013!!

Pictures in 2013!! Every Wednesday I will be sharing snap shots of my past week, a good way for me to keep up on my pictures and my blog! These pictures are things that I want to remember in years to come! Pictures can say so much when you just don't know what to say. If you would like to join me this year just leave a comment, make sure you add the link to your blog post if you want to share! I might do a link up each week if I have enough interest other wise will stick to the comments!  Don't worry about writing a long blog post telling about each picture, just post a picture and your done! You can share 1 or 20 pictures maybe you had a busy week maybe not either way it's fun! 

I'm thinking of making this a link up if anyone is interested, just let me know and I would be happy to do so.

 These pictures are from our New Year's Eve night out! We really had so much fun with our church family,  I can't tell you  how  blessed I feel to have these people in my life.  We did miss our Pastor and his family due to the flu, please keep them in your prayers.

Here are 3 pictures I wanted to share, even though they did not turn out very well.  Our new phone takes really bad pictures for some reason, maybe it was the lighting. I guess I should try to have my camera on me at all times so this does not happen again. I still think they are darling no matter what!


Grace



Victoria

Hannah

 



Blessings,

Pamela