Happy Fall, Family Portrait Time, and Trusting the Father's Heart

  

  Hello Everyone,  I hope you are enjoying the fall season.  The weather here in Texas has been so strange.  It seemed we went from summer to a cold blast that felt like winter.  We had cold weather and rain that has now warmed up to feel like summer without the scorching temperatures.  I think it should cool off again and feel more like fall, but we will see.  

  Last week I had a surprise when I opened the mailbox and found this cute pumpkin inside.  Did you know that you can send a pumpkin through the mail?  I had no idea!  It had a label with our address and there it sat inside the box waiting for me to retrieve it.  This was such a fun surprise, and we appreciate our sweet relative who sent it to us.  :)  Little things like this mean so much!  

  I realize that we have several more weeks of fall, and then we will be thrust into the Christmas season.  I have some Christmas books prepared to read to my children during circle time and am getting excited over decorating for Christmas as well.  

  Tomorrow we take family photos, and preparing for the photo shoot has taken a lot of my time the last couple of weeks.  It does not seem like it should take so much time to prepare, but family photos for us usually involve trying to keep everyone well before the session, preparing nine full outfits including accessories, etc. and trimming hair as well.  It is just staggering how many little details go into all of it.  Here is a sneak peek; the three year old will be wearing this.  :) 

  

  Whenever we are going to do a photo shoot the first step for me is to come up with a color scheme.  Sometimes I have something in mind, but oftentimes it will be a particular outfit that I want to build our family wardrobe around.  This particular time it all started when I saw an outfit in a store that I thought was cute.  The store just happened to have it in the sizes my three middle girls wear.  So, I ended up buying matching outfits for the three middle girls and then worked from there.  As I add more outfits to the overall scheme of things I lay things out across my bed and see how all the colors work together.  One thing I am looking for is a balance of colors.  Our colors for this shoot will be navy, cream and a cranberry color.  What I wanted was not to have too much of one color but a nice balance.  

  After I have all the outfits worked out I move on to focusing on accessories.  This is a bracelet my oldest daughter will be wearing.  Then after everything is planned out I try to put together individual piles for each member of the family so that we can find what we need on picture day.  Currently I have piles covering my dresser.  In the individual piles are things like each person's shoes, accessories, hair things, socks, etc.  The outfits are hanging in my closet so as to avoid wrinkles.  All this preparation helps reduce the chaos as we are trying to all get ready to have the pictures taken.  Here is a picture from last year's photo session.  

When picture day finally arrives it is a full day event for us.  I have to make sure that everyone is bathed, dressed, hair fixed, nails clean, faces wiped, shoes on, etc. My oldest is good with fixing hair, so she is a big help to me in the hair department; I am really thankful for the help she provides, because we have a lot of hair to fix!  

  This time we are going to be incorporating some graduation photos of our oldest into our family session.  She should be graduating next year, so we are going to go ahead and take photos at this time.  I cannot believe we are already here; how has this happened so quickly?  She and I have had fun coming up with some fun ideas for her photos that include books, glitter, and sheet music.  It will be fun to see how these turn out.  

  In other news, the weeks seem to be flying by so rapidly and we seem to be in a season of waiting.  There are quite a number of things we have been praying about and the answers are just not coming yet.  I don't think that is every a comfortable place to be, but doesn't it seem that much of life is about waiting and trusting?  It is easy for me to grow discontent and anxious about things, but by the grace of God, I am better at trusting than I used to be.  Through experience I KNOW the past faithfulness of God,  and I know that the God Who has been faithful in the past will be faithful in the future! Sometimes He simply asks us to be still, wait and trust Him.  He also wants us to surrender our wills in the waiting.  Here is what Andrew Murray said about absolute surrender:

  

  Sometimes in the waiting we are reminded that there is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves.  As John fifteen tells us, we can do nothing apart from abiding in the vine. 

Just recently I found myself praying, "Lord, there is nothing I can do about such and such; please work this out according to your will."  Being in a place of complete inability to move circumstances  doesn't always feel good, but it is the place where Christ can show His power the strongest.  "In our weakness He is strong."  

  Right now I find myself praying over many things that I truly want answers to; in fact I wanted answers like yesterday, but God is working in me through the waiting.  It is part of His refining work in my life to have me wait upon Him and trust Him.  

  This morning the children and I sang that old hymn that says, "Trust and obey."  One thing that stuck out to me was the verse that says, "But we never can prove the delights of His love until all on the alter we lay."  Those are some powerful words; our Lord is asking us to lay our wills, our desires, and our plans on the alter and commit everything to Him.  

  Truly there is no safer more secure place to be than resting in our Father God's good and perfect will for us even if He is leading us blindfolded for the time being.  We can trust His heart towards us whether we see where the way is leading or whether we can't see clearly for the time being.  In His good and perfect timing He will take off the blindfolds, and we will see clearly where He has been leading all along.  I hope this is encouraging to you, as I am sure there are many of us waiting on this or that.  We can encourage one another that our Lord is faithful and is working even when we don't see what He is doing.  His heart towards us is always good, loving and kind.  May you be encouraged today!  

  

Treasuring Our Morning Circle Time

Welcome back to the podcast!  Today's episode is an explanation of how we do our morning circle time and why this time in our day is so precious to me.  I hope you enjoy, and I would love to hear if you do something similar to this in your homeschool.  Maybe you have some ideas to share with me as well!  :)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-legacyhomeschoolreflections-d3zzd/circle+time++-+10_21_18%2C+5.24+PM.mp3

Feeling Overwhelmed?

  

Hello Friends,
  How has your week been?  I've had another whirlwind of a week on this Texas farm.  It has actually been our first cold week this fall which means the children and I have been cooped up inside most of the week.  I love it for the first few days when a cold front blows through and it rains outside, but after a few days I start to feel like we are going stir crazy.  The temps are now warming back up, and I think it will end up being beautiful for awhile before winter really sets in.
  Somehow the dreary weather this week made me feel sluggish, and I felt like I was feeling unmotivated in some areas.  Isn't it funny how the weather can affect our moods and energy levels so much?  In today's post I want to talk about drawing strength from the Lord whenever we do feel tired, discouraged, or overwhelmed.  These are emotions that we all fall into from time to time, and sometimes life is just throwing so much at us that the combined weight of it all can feel crippling.

  I am sure we all have our list of things that overwhelm and stress us.  I have been thinking through what are some of the things that tend to zap our energy and stress us as Mamas, and here are a few things I thought of:

1. Being Too Busy

  It is so easy to fall into the trap of being too busy.  If we look around us at what others are doing, we probably will find ourselves committing our families to too much activity outside of the home which will lead to a frazzled and stressed out life.  I fell into that trap when my children were younger.  At the time I saw many activities through church and the local homeschool group that we could be involved in and I committed to too much.  I am so thankful that the Lord got my attention and showed me that we needed to slow things down and be home more.  He showed me that my top priority needed to be discipling the hearts of my children and that this was going to be very hard if we were always running to one activity after another.  I became convicted that we needed to spend most of our time in the home seeking first the kingdom of God as a family and make sure that things were running well on the home front.  I learned to really count the cost of committing to an activity before making a decision to get involved.  One helpful question to ask ourselves is, "Will my children still be reaping benefit from this activity ten to twenty years down the road?"  If the answer is no, then maybe this is an activity that could be turned down.  It is hard to say no to opportunities, but sometimes this is the best thing we can do for our families.  

2. Changes

  

  I think change can be stressful even if it is good change.  An example of this would be moving to a better location for your family.  That may be a great thing in the end, but all the emotion, uncertainty and work involved in getting that goal accomplished can be a real stresser.  

  Also, changing seasons, watching children grow up, watching parents age, and launching children into adulthood can all be draining on our emotions.  In times of change we are reminded that we need to hold things loosely.  If we try to have a firm grip on things we will find ourselves struggling to keep things a certain way.  If, however, we learn to let go and trust in God's Sovereignty, over the ones we love, then we will be able to walk through the changes more gracefully.  

3. Trusting My Own Ability When I Should Be Trusting in Christ's Sufficiency

  Everything in our culture tells us that we need to be strong, confident women and make our dreams come true.  I am sadly seeing this mentality even amongst women claiming to be Christian teachers.  The ideology goes something like this, "Only you can believe in yourself, dream big dreams, pull up your boot straps, overcome your difficulties, and make things happen."  The focus is on trying hard enough, being brave enough, dreaming big enough dreams, and doing whatever it takes to make YOUR dreams a reality.  I really have a problem with this teaching that seems very prevalent and popular today.  

  My understanding of Scripture is that we should live for Christ and His calling on our lives.  Just because I dream something up does not mean that it is God's will for me.  Also, being confident in myself is not the goal.  My confidence should be rooted in Christ alone.  I actually do not feel confident in myself to parent my seven children well, homeschool well, write well, speak well, do homemaking well, be a great wife, etc.  My confidence is that Christ will accomplish His work through the weak vessel that I am.  If my assurance is in myself then I'm in real trouble.  That seems like a huge burden to bear to think that I would have to believe in my own abilities and work hard enough.  

  It is hugely comforting to know that Christ desires to do what only He can do through me.  Though I am weak, He is strong.  The Christian life is not about working hard enough to actualize my personal goals and dreams.  It is about an exchanged life meaning not I but Christ.  This truth is freeing and comforting.  

  Isn't it interesting that the Word of God tells us that we actually can do nothing apart from Christ?  Abiding in Him is the source of our ability and our confidence.  I think we need to be keenly discerning about this popular message that is taking the internet by storm that says, "You just have to get up and chase your dreams and make them happen."  That is not a Biblical message, and we need to think Biblically.  Let's not get caught up in following the teachings of Instagram if they are not in line with the inspired Word of God.  This, my friends, is why we need to saturate our minds in the truth of Scripture so that we will not be taken captive by the philosophies of men.  

  I hope this has been helpful in thinking through where some of our feelings of being overwhelmed may be rooted.  Of course there are so many other things that cause us to feel tired and overwhelmed, but I think these three areas may be the root of a lot of it.  I can think of others too, but for time sake I am just focusing on these three today.  My encouragement to us all is to put our hope and confidence in Christ, to think with a Christian worldview, and to commit our ways to the Lord instead of being anxious.  This is a day by day and moment by moment journey to try to live this out, but we grow through the process of learning to put all our hope in Christ alone.  He should be the source of our strength and our confidence.  He will help us to prioritize our days when we seek Him and His righteousness above the demands and pressures the culture puts upon us.  As I grow older,  I want to become better at being still and remembering that He is God and He is Sovereign over us.  His ways are always loving and good towards us.  We can trust Him.  I have a long ways to go in growing in these truths, but how thankful I am that our Lord Jesus is sanctifying me and teaching me as I look to Him.  Have a blessed week trusting in the Creator of your souls Who loves you and is sufficient for your every need.   

Making My Own All Purpose House Cleaner

A couple of weeks ago the girls and I canned some oranges and decided to try to make our own all purpose house cleaner out of the orange peels.  What we did is put the peels in Mason jars and then pour white distilled vinegar over the top.  Then we put on the lids and let the jars sit for a couple of weeks.  This morning I opened up the jars and poured the liquid contents into spray bottles.  It was a very easy thing to do, and I am really happy with the results!  The orange color came out really pretty, and I like knowing this is a non-toxic way of cleaning our home. The smell of the oranges really helps with the stink of the vinegar.  You could also add a drop of essential oil if you want to play around with different recipes and scents.  It was nice to find a purpose for the orange peels that came off the oranges that we canned.  Do you make any homemade cleaners?  I would love to hear about them.  Blessings to you all!

Nineteenth Anniversary Trip to Ohio's Amish Country

  This past week my husband and I celebrated nineteen years of marriage.  That sounds like such a long time, and yet it does not seem like it has been that long!  We were blessed to be able to take a short trip to our house in Ohio for the weekend, and my dear husband had some beautiful flowers waiting there for me upon arrival.   

  We had hoped to see fall color in all of its splendor, but the leaves are really taking their time to turn color this year.  All the locals say fall is arriving later than usual.  We did see some pretty color here and there, but I think in another week or two colors will be a lot more vibrant.  Maybe we will see more fall color another year.  

   In our short time there we drove all over Holmes County visiting various stores, eating yummy food and seeing beautiful scenery.  Hilcrest Orchard had the best apple cider, but I was disappointed to not be able to take home fruit for canning!  You can't take home fruit when flying.  The weight of the fruit would cost a fortune at the airport.  We will have to save the fruit for another trip when we are driving back.  

  We also went through a drive-thru safari riding through the park on a large wagon ride,  and we saw all kinds of animals.  One highlight was getting to pick up some friends and go out to dinner with them on Friday night.  We laughed and had such a fun time chatting with them.  After dinner we went back to their farm and sat in their living room where we chatted for a little while.  

I love the beautiful hillsides, barns and silos.  I never grow tired of looking at the beauty of these hills and how they look so different during different seasons and in different weather.  The hills radiate one kind of beauty when the sun shines over them and an altogether different kind of serenity when it is misty and raining.  They also take on various looks depending on the season.  Spring flowers are gorgeous and yet fall foliage is a different kind of magnificent wonder.  Then the whole area looks clean and sparkly when the snow covers the hills and trees.  Aww, I love this place so much!  

  As a side note,  I wrote about becoming friends with the Amish in my book "Legacy Reflections of a Homeschooled Homeschooling Mama."  You can read all about it in my chapter "Life Lessons from the Amish."  I am blessed to have some of the sweetest friends amongst the Amish, and I deeply treasure their friendship.  They inspire me in many ways, and I continue to learn a lot from spending time with them. 

I was pleased to see that our mum looked beautiful, and leaves are falling over the back yard.  I am sad that we missed the peak of the fall foliage, that will probably be out soon, but we were able to see a foretaste of what is around the corner.  It was a blessing to have some time away with my husband and to see friends even though our time with them was far too short.  I'm not sure when my next trip to Ohio will be.  Winter is coming, and it is a long way from Texas to Ohio.  For now I'll treasure the memories made, pray for my friends there, and look forward to the next visit!

Here is a poem that I came across during our time in Ohio.  I thought it was powerful and very true! 

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

It's so easy in this day where compromise abounds 

To redefine the truth until we like the way it sounds.

But truth is not negotiable, no, not at any cost, 

For when we start to alter it, to us the truth gets lost. 

It may seem insignificant to change in some small things, 

But when the truth is sacrificed, great consequence it brings.

God's Word is built on principles, not preferences of men; 

They must apply to all of life and not just now and then.

If we are to be the Church and be a light that shines, 

Truth must dictate how we live and not our own designs.

Truth is not negotiable, no, not at any cost,

For when we start to alter it, to us the truth gets lost.

-David L. Vanderpool

  

A Shelter in Our Time of Storm Part 3

Here is part three of this podcast series A Shelter in Our Time of Storm.  If you are going through a storm in your own life, I hope that our story brings you encouragement that we serve a God Who is ever faithful and loving.  He has been gracious to us.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-legacyhomeschoolreflections-d3zzd/Ella+Ruth's+Birth+Part+3+-+10_8_18%2C+12.37+PM.mp3

Canning Grapes and Good Books

  Hello Friends,  I hope you had a nice week.  Are you enjoying the changing of seasons?  It still feels hot and muggy here, but word has it that Texas might possibly get a cold front next week.  :)  

  This week has flown by, but one accomplishment on the home front was the canning of some grapes.  I was not sure that you could can grapes, but I saw a good sale on them and started researching on Pinterest.  What I found is that you can easily can grapes by simply stemming them, washing them, adding a sugar/water syrup, and then giving them a water bath.  Because I like to limit our sugar intake, I made a light syrup of more water than sugar.  I really think the red grapes turned out pretty.  As I look at the various things I have been able to can I love seeing the different colors sitting on my pantry shelves.  It is a sweet feeling of accomplishment for which I am thankful.  

  Now that the grapes are canned I am thinking they will be great to eat as they are, but we can also open a can and add other fruits to create a fruit salad.  Due to time constraints I did not make any grape jelly, but since grape jelly is one of my favorites I think I will try that next time I find grapes at a good price.  

  In other news my mom recently took me shopping for my birthday.  I was thrilled to get this new quilt set from Cracker Barrel.  I had been using the same quilt for the longest time, and it is really fun to see something new.  This quilt is the wedding ring quilt pattern, and I really like the roses inside each ring.  The old quilt will be kept for extra warmth on cold nights (Yes, we do get some cold winter nights in Texas), but I am really enjoying this brand new set with lighter colors than what I had before.  The white pillows against the headboard are European pillows from Walmart.  

  Lastly I want to share a book series that we found at a conference back in August.  It is called The Building on the Rock Series and has some powerful and inspiring short stories that we have been enjoying reading in our circle and Bible times.  I like to share good books with you, because I have a passion for encouraging Christian families to choose the best of literature that will inspire our families towards loving Christ, living for the kingdom of God and walking in godliness.  This series is definitely one I would recommend.  Blessings to you as we enter another week and seek to live it for the glory of God.  

Fall Canning and Decorating

I have spent many years longing to learn the skill of canning, and now that I have learned how to water bath can I can't seem to quit canning!  I have found that I really enjoy it!  I do have to say, however, that I hope next time I can, I do not end up with other life chaos visiting during my canning production.  The last two times I canned I had unexpected stress, but somehow things turned out alright in the end.
  Last Friday I spent ALL.DAY.LONG canning, and wouldn't you know I would have someone hack into my computer in the middle of my big canning production?  It was very stressful, but thankfully after spending the weekend changing passwords, canceling credit cards, making phone calls, etc. all is well.  The canning session before that one I had the power go out during the evening which left me canning with only the light of my iPhone for awhile.  So, I am really hoping that next time I want to can things can remain otherwise calm in our house.  :)
  Recently I went to a local roadside market and asked if they would give me a bargain on a box of plums.  I ended up saving sixty cents per pound by purchasing the twenty-five pound box.  It was fun to bring so many plums home and research Pinterest to decide what I wanted to make!

  I ended up making plum jam which didn't set like I had hoped, so I think we will use it as plum syrup.  I also wonder if we could add a little pectin when we open a jar and get the jam consistency.  Has anyone ever tried this, or is there a way to thicken it once we open each individual jar?  

  I used a nifty tool called an apple corer, but it worked great with the plums to get the stones out.  

  I LOVED watching the juice come out of the food mill; it was such a pretty color!  Also, there is nothing like the smell of fresh fruit and sugar simmering over a hot stove.  Unfortunately this must be the point where I did not add enough pectin.  I am not sure what went wrong.  I thought I was following the instructions and it looked reasonably thick to me.  I know I still have much to learn about canning!  

  I also made a plum/pear/applesauce that has been a big hit with my children.  They like putting it on rice cakes, eating it plain, and my toddler likes to dip her bread in it. 

  Last but not least I also made plum pie filling, and I am thinking this might be delicious around the holidays.  Don't plums just make you think of the Christmas season?  They go so well with the holiday spices and smell so wonderful!  

  

  Sometimes I tend to be overly ambitious, and since I found a good sale last week, I also had some nectarines and oranges to try my hand at canning.  This was the first time for each of these fruits, but the nectarines were pretty much like canning peaches except that I did not take the skins off the nectarines.  They really canned up pretty!  

  

  Lastly I did the oranges, and according to one of my children they turned out tasty as well.  I just sliced the oranges and used a knife to take off as much of the white from under the peel as I could.  I used a light syrup to pour over the oranges when they were done.  I am looking forward to doing some baby oranges when I find a good deal on those as well.  For now I just had a small amount of larger oranges, so it was not a huge amount but a good start.  

I saw on Pinterest that you can make homemade natural housecleaner by putting the leftover orange peels in a Mason jar and pouring white distilled vinegar over them.  Then you put the lid on and let the orange peels sit for a week and a half to two weeks and then put the scented liquids in spray bottles.  I am excited to see how this cleaner turns out after my jars sit for a couple of weeks.  They look pretty sitting on my shelf for now!  

  The last thing I want to share in this post is my new black tray I found at Kirklands.  I saw this tray last week and LOVED it.  It was one of those things that I kept thinking about, so when I received a coupon to Kirklands I went back and got a good deal on it.  I am thrilled with it; I put some straw decorative balls in it with a battery powered lantern and a fall pumpkin and leaves.  At Christmas I will trade out the fall touches with Christmas trimmings.  I put the tray on our bedroom dresser which is making me really happy, because our bedroom often gets neglected.  It is a room I can close off and often doesn't seem like the priority of the kitchen or family room.  It is so nice though when it is clean and there can be something like this seasonal decoration to bring a nice touch to the room.  I am excited to just change out a few things for each season.  I like decorations that can remain in the same place year around with only a few adjustments for each new season.  It makes life simpler! 

  Well, that is what has been going on over here the last few days.  Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed week!